The Use and Abuse of Ideology: The Struggle for Africa

WILLIAM FREUND. The Making of Contemporary Africa: The Development of African Society since 1800. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1984. Pp. 357. $19.50 (US); MAI FALMBERO, ed. The Struggle for Africa, trans. E.M.K. Andree, Mai Palmberg, and Howard Simson. London: Zed Press, 1983. Pp. iii, 286. $31.95 (Can.).Reviewed by John Flint     

ABUSE,REUSE, RECYCLE: THE USES OF BASALT ORTHOSTATS AT HAZOR IN THE BRONZE AND IRON AGES

This paper investigates the use of basalt orthostats in Syro‐Anatolia throughout the Bronze and Iron Ages, focusing on the changes in their consumption at Hazor. Used to reflect the wealth and power of city rulers in the Middle and Late Bronze Ages, this practice continued in the Iron Age in Syro‐Anatolia, while at Hazor it stopped entirely. By applying the modern concepts of counter‐monumentality and spolia, it is suggested that, at Hazor, the orthostats were used by the Iron Age inhabitants of the city to glorify the destruction of the Late Bronze Age city and to humiliate the previous royalty of Hazor, thus exhibiting their victory over its Canaanite rulers.     

The Traditional Arab House in the Eastern Mediterranean and its Adaptation to the Mediterranean Climate

This study examines the climate‐related methods of adaptation on which the traditional Arab house in the Eastern Mediterranean was based. We analysed nine old houses (from the 18th century to the early 20th century), built in the Arab vernacular tradition style, in three areas of Israel with different climatic conditions. Three houses in each area were chosen at random. Only nine were chosen because of the difficulty in finding houses whose state of preservation was in keeping with the aims of the research. For each house, climate‐related elements of the construction were documented. We found elements included at the design stage indicating climate consciousness, climate‐related elements due to building constraints, and building constraints in a cultural context with implications for the balance of climatic efficiency. The findings showed that climatic considerations were an integral part of the design while the principles crossed the boundaries of the three areas. Temperature, relative humidity, and heat intensity were measured, both inside and outside the house on selected days in each season. The research showed that the house moderates the impact of the outside temperature, inside the house in winter and mainly during the hot hours of the day in summer. Most of the climate‐related elements are still relevant. They can be used in regions with Mediterranean‐type climates (in the Mediterranean Basin, South Africa, central Chile, and southwestern Australia), especially when global warming and air pollution demand a substantial revolution of building design philosophies, strategies, technologies, and management methods.     

Metalworking at Hazor: A Long‐Term Perspective

The temporal and spatial distribution of metal production remains from Hazor was used in this study to sketch the development of metalworking (bronze, iron and silver) at this important site. The remains attest to a long sequence of metalworking at Hazor, from the Middle Bronze Age through to the Iron Age, and significantly highlight the transition from bronze to iron production and the mode of bronze production after the transition had been completed.     

‘Decision not to decide’: a new challenge for planning

This article examines how the policy-maker’s ‘decision not to decide’ affects different levels of internal organization and how it is reflected in the residential patterns of different population groups. The article explores the dynamics of residential patterns in two case studies: the Collective behaviour of the Sylheti community along Whitechapel Road in Eastern London and the Group Action of the ‘Kol-Torah’ Community in Zangwill Street, Jerusalem, where Inner-markets activities create clear property lines around/within their boundaries and result in a similar homogeneous pattern. Identifying the main engines of organized neighbourhood change and the difficulties of planning and dealing with individuals in the housing market shed light on similar processes occurring in other city centres with diverse population groups.     

Embodying the garrison state? Everyday geographies of militarization in American society

This study evaluates the garrison state hypothesis (Lasswell, 1941, Lasswell, 1962), which posited that the United States and other democratic states were becoming militarized societies, dominated by military culture, values, and goals. Building on the work of various scholars who have more recently identified the militarization of U.S. policies and other actions emanating from the formal state apparatus, we have explored the everyday geographies of the nation-state, with particular emphasis upon the experiences and activities of people in local settings. Considering the contingency of how everyday geographies of the state are constituted, two towns (Hopkinsville, Kentucky and Clarksville, Tennessee) neighboring Fort Campbell, Kentucky are analyzed using interviews, participant observations, and documentary evidence to examine manifestations of militarism and ongoing processes of militarization. Despite their common adjacency to Fort Campbell, the agency of actors in Hopkinsville and Clarksville has at times resulted in different bases for resistance to, and acceptance of, militarizing processes. We conclude that the construction of a ‘friendly’ or democratic ‘garrison state’ does not emerge in a simple, top-down manner, but rather is possible only with the people and practices who constitute the everyday geographies of the state, though this process is negotiated differently in different settings due to the complex central–local relations occurring within them.