Of Peaceable Kingdoms and Lawless Frontiers: Exploring the Relationship between History,Mythology and Gun Culture in the North American West

The United States is more violent than Canada and it always has been. Even in the face of mass shootings, most Americans remain culturally and politically resistant to the sorts of gun control measures that have long existed in Canada. America’s unique gun culture is embedded in the history, imagery, and especially the mythology of the American frontier. Canada had its own frontier experience and has its own history of gun ownership, but it does not have a parallel gun culture. This article presents a comparative analysis of post-Civil War/post-Confederation frontier history and mythology, and examines the construction of contrasting cultural narratives of America’s “Wild West” and Canada’s “Mild West.” It suggests that US–Canadian differences in gun laws and gun culture—even in the borderlands region of Alberta/Montana—are better explained by the countries’ two different frontier mythologies than by their actual western histories.     

The Spirit and the Gifts: Dako,Benjamin Morrell and Cargo in the Vitiaz Trading area,New Guinea

In 1830 an American trader, Benjamin Morrell, abducted Dako, the son of a prominent leader from Uneapa Island in the Bismarck Sea, took him to New York and, four years later, returned him to Uneapa. Dako's encounter with America and his return provides insight into the region half a century before colonization, and in particular into local mytho‐practical knowledge at that time. This enables us to discern subsequent transformations. Myths concerning an origin spirit and guardian of the dead, Pango, which then dominated Uneapa cosmology have since ‘disappeared’. This, we argue, is not because Pango has been superseded or suppressed, but because the parallel ‘white’ world over which the mytho‐practical Pango presided has become ever more manifest as Uneapa has been drawn into a colonial, post‐colonial and globalised world. Today, Pango refers predominantly to white people. Islander's experience of American ‘Pango’ was a shocking event at the time, but we show how trading with Pango established transformatory possibilities for reciprocal trading relations with the dead which remain the concern of today's Cult movement on the island.     

Vagantibus Graeciae fabulis: the North African wanderings of Antaios and Herakles

The myth of Antaios and Herakles emerged from the encounter between the northern and southern shores of the Mediterranean. This article explores two parallel courses of the myth's progressive development. One is geographical, with the myth travelling from east to west (from Kyrenaika, through Tunisia, to Tangier). The other unfolds within the plot itself: at first Herakles stands for the Greeks (and later the Romans), while Antaios embodies the indigenous Libyans. However, shifting political circumstances also allow for the (conjectural) identification of Greeks with the figure of Antaios, and a (certain) equation of Libyans with Herakles. On the whole, the history of the myth from the seventh to the first centuries BCE reflects the development of a politically and culturally coherent Mediterranean over the same period, from the first Greek settlers in Libya to the Mediterranean empire of Augustus.     

希腊神话语境中的"正义"

希腊神话内容异常丰富 ,在神话语境中蕴育了自然主义的忒弥斯正义和人为约定的狄刻正义两种话语体系 ,产生了最早的希腊“正义”思想。这种正义成为古代希腊文化的重要组成部分 ,开启了西方自然正义和契约正义的先河 ,成为德性伦理学的滥觞     

Anatomy of the national myth: archetypes and narrative in the study of nationalism

This paper argues that recognising types of underlying narrative form which repeatedly occur across cases is critical to the study of nationalism. It proposes a method borrowed from the literary theory of Northrop Frye – archetypal criticism – for identifying the four basic forms of emotional architecture that characterise the myths of particular nations: tragic, romantic, comic and satiric. The study of nationalism has long acknowledged the importance of narrative in political behaviour. But consideration of how distinct types of narratives affect specific emotions is missing. The ‘narrative turn’ in the social sciences, which has responded to instrumentalist scepticism, has thus far focused on the cognitive functions of narrative. That is, how narrative influences the acquisition and interpretation of information and how stories are used to construct or reinforce a collective understanding of events. The undertheorised dimension of narrative in nationalism relates to the emotional structures embedded within narrative. This is where this paper makes its contribution.     

Buffalo hunting and the feral frontier of Australia's Northern Territory

There is now a growing interest in new approaches to examine the construction and significance of Western frontier landscapes. This paper adds to this new scholarship by examining how labour relations associated with buffalo hunting in Australia's North were also race relations which became embedded in the production and representations of this landscape as a feral region of the outback frontier. Drawing on a range of archival, secondary and oral sources, the paper outlines the myriad of human–buffalo and cross-cultural interactions that revolved around the shooting of buffalo within an erratic industry between the early 1890s and the mid-1950s. The analysis emphasizes that insecure efforts of officials and settlers to authorize, re-work or hide buffalo hunting interactions were linked with a wider debate on the type of people and animals who could colonize this region. It is from these ‘feral’ landscapes and histories, the paper argues, where a multiple of definitions and significance of frontier experiences can be found.

La chasse au buffle et les avant-postes féraux du Northern Territory de l'Australie

De nouvelles méthodes qui sont employées pour étudier la construction et la signification des paysages frontaliers occidentaux présentent aujourd'hui un intérêt croissant. Le présent article vise à enrichir ces travaux savants par l'examen des façons dont les relations au travail associé à la chasse au buffle ont aussi été des relations interraciales qui ont fait partie intégrante de la production et des représentations de ce paysage comme région férale de l'intérieur du pays inexploré. L'article s'appuie sur de nombreuses sources d'archives, secondaires et orales et présente une vue d'ensemble de la myriade d'interactions transculturelles et homme-buffle qui caractérisaient la chasse au buffle durant la période marquée d'irrégularités allant des années 1890 jusqu'au milieu des années 1950. L'analyse permet de souligner les efforts ténus de la part des officiers et colonisateurs pour rendre légitime, retravailler ou masquer les interactions de la chasse au buffle qui étaient liés, en effet, à un débat plus important sur le genre de personnes et d'animaux qui pouvaient coloniser cette région. L'article conclue que dans ces histoires et paysages «féraux» se retrouvent une quantité innombrable de définitions et de sens découlant des expériences vécues aux avant-postes.

Title in spanish

Hay un interés cada vez mayor en nuevos enfoques para examinar la construcción y la importancia de los paisajes fronterizos occidentales. Este papel contribuye a este nuevo estudio por examinar cómo las relaciones laborales asociadas con la caza de búfalo en el norte de Australia eran también relaciones raciales que se arraigaron en la producción y las representaciones de este paisaje como una región salvaje de la frontera del ‘outback’. Haciendo uso de información de archivos y fuentes secundarias y orales, el papel detalla la miríada de interacciones entre humanos y búfalos y tras varias culturas que giraban alrededor de la caza de búfalo dentro de una industria irregular entre 1890 y 1950. El análisis enfatiza que los esfuerzos inseguros de funcionarios y pobladores para autorizar, adaptar u ocultar las interacciones en la caza de búfalo se vinculaban con un debate más amplio sobre qué tipo de persona y animal se permitía a colonizar esta región. El papel sugiere que son en éstos historias y paisajes ‘salvajes’ donde se encuentran las múltiples definiciones y la importancia de las experiencias fronterizas.     

'With a strong hand and an outstretched arm' the meaning of the expression byd hzqh wbzrw' ntwyh

The expression ''with a strong hand and an outstretched arm'' is usually understood as being an expression of the power of God. There are various suggestions as to which aspect of his power is indicated: The power of inflicting plague and sickness or his power as a warrior - or whether the expression is used as a counterpart to Egyptian royal terminology. It is suggested here that the expression does refer to the power of inflicting plague and sickness, for the following reasons: ''With a strong hand and an outstretched arm'' is a parallelism between two collocations of words, ''strong hand'' and ''outstretched hand'' (''arm'' + the verb ''stretch out''). When the two collocations, both containing the word ''hand'', were made to form a parallelism, the element ''arm'' was the added to one of them to achieve variation between the units of the parallelism. The element ''arm'', which often has a military connotation, is then an extraneous component to the expression. The outcome of ''stretching out the hand'' in the Pentateuch and the historical books is miraculous events, some of these being a number of the plagues. The expression does not seem to have any military connotation in the account of the Exodus. A comparison with the literatures of other Semitic languages shows that in the ancient Near East not only ''the hand'' of a deity inflicting plague and sickness can be found, but actually ''a strong hand''. In most of the occurrences of the expression in the Pentateuch apparently the entire experience of Israel in Egypt is signified. Only in Exod 3,19; 6,1; (where we cannot be sure whether the arm belongs to YHWH or to Pharaoh) and 6,6 the expression is connected to specific traditions in the account of the Exodus, and these are exactly the plague traditions.     

英语语言学习与西方文化影响

语言与文化是相互依存的关系,文化对语言学习的影响重大,在英语学习过程中应注意对文化渊源的了解。语言和文化有着不可分割的关系,对语言学习而言,文化意识至关重要。古希腊神话和基督教思想是西方文明的源头,深刻影响着西方文明的发展。作为语言艺术的西方文学反映和代表着西方文化。所以,了解西方文化,广泛涉猎英美文学作品,对英语学习者是十分必要的。