Materiality and Cosmology: Old Georgian Churches as Sacred,Sublime, and Secular Objects

Discourses about Georgian churches have since the nineteenth century treated the material quality of'ancientness’ associated with existing churches as being among their essential defining properties. This paper first explores how different material qualisigns of churches, including oldness and qualisigns attendant on oldness, allow churches to be interpreted as secular objects, by ordering them with theatres (as expressive of'civilization'), the natural landscape (expressive of an aesthetics of the sublime) or other monuments, including texts (expressive of culture). One result of such discourses is that the contemporary Orthodox Church finds it difficult to have ‘new’ churches accepted as being churches at all. These nineteenth‐century discourses thus provide a context for the complex and contested reception of old and new Orthodox churches, as well as other religious structures, such as mountain shrines, which have a more ambiguous relation with Orthodoxy.     

Contagion and Alterity: Kowoj Maya Appropriations of European Objects

ABSTRACT  From initial contact with the Europeans until their conquest (C.E. 1525–1697), the Itza and their political rivals, the Kowoj, dominated Petén, Guatemala. Colonial artifacts at Zacpetén record the initial appropriations of European objects by the Kowoj. All such objects rested in ceremonial contexts, indicating that the Kowoj considered them positive sources of sacred power. The Kowoj were in contact with the Spaniards and knew they were the source of the valued materials; hence, the materials also signified otherness. Social elites frequently retained objects obtained from long distances, even those of oppressive colonial groups, as positive contagion. I argue that the Kowoj incorporated colonial objects into their rites to harness the power of alterity.     

Rooting of etiolated stem segments of Populus robusta – interaction of temperature, catechol and sucrose in the presence of IAA

Etiolated stem segments of Populus robusta Schneid. were cultured in test solutions each containing 2.0 mg/1 of IAA in combination with varying concentrations of catechol or sucrose or both at 10 ± 2°C, 25 ± 1°C and 35 ± 1°C in the dark. Cuttings did not root in catechol in the presence of IAA alone at 10 ± 2°C. There was no mortality in this culture solution at this temperature. However, cuttings rooted in this culture solution at 25 ± 1°C and 35 ± 1°C and also showed mortality, which was more severe at 35 ± 1°C than at 25 ± 1°C and more severe at higher than at lower concentrations of catechol. Rooting occurred on cuttings in catechol in the presence of IAA and sucrose even at 10 ± 2°C and was strongly promoted at 25 ± 1°C and 35 ± 1°C. The mortality of segments caused by catechol was markedly lowered in the presence of sucrose at these temperatures. Sucrose thus antagonised the toxic effect of catechol.     

Cricket,drinking and exclusion of British Pakistani Muslims?

Throughout history sports cultures and alcohol have been intimately linked. Being able to drink huge amounts of alcohol is a celebrated male athletic virtue. Ridicule and often exclusion is reserved for those who are unable to conform to this. Ritualized drinking is not, and cannot, be enjoyed by all. British Muslims (the majority of whom are of South Asian descent) for instance, are restricted from drinking alcohol due to the demands of Islam. This paper uses data collected from ethnographic research conducted with white British and British Pakistani Muslim cricketers to locate the significance of drinking alcohol in both the inclusion and exclusion of British Pakistani Muslims. We demonstrate that, in negotiating their inclusion, British Pakistani Muslims have to accommodate, negotiate and challenge various forms of inequality and discrimination in their leisure lives.We argue that consuming alcohol calls attention to the challenges of being ‘normal’ within this cultural context.     

材料的重要性

《材料的重要性》是《景观设计理论》的一段节选。《景观设计理论》旨在不使用专业术语或其他领域假说的前提下,结合景观设计过程向学生介绍内在理论思想。《材料的重要性》是本书的五章之一。每一章针对特定理论,解释了其基础和来源,探讨了它对设计的重要性,列举了20—21世纪与其相关的设计案例,整理了该理论的辩论(尤其是有关现代和后现代思想),最后还有相关阅读材料清单和需要学生们思考的问题。本文分为如下3个部分：第一部分,物质性,介绍“辩证唯物主义”“媒介即信息”“物质实践”和“编码”等理论及其在设计中的运用;第二部分,通过“建构表达”“地貌代理人策略”“石材的面层”“材料的暗示”“人造,但不是伪造”等理论,介绍材料的真实性及其在设计中的运用;第三部分,复写理论及应用,包括“剩余物”“复写的展示性”“未来的复写”和“虚构的复写”等内容。     

记英属维尔京群岛的两栖爬行动物

本文记１９９１年１０月在英属维尔克群岛的１２个岛礁采集的两栖爬行动物共１５种１００余号,以及观察到的另两种爬行动物。     

The Establishment and Defeat of Hierarchy: Inalienable Possessions and the History of Collective Prestige Structures in the Pueblo Southwest

The role of social valuables in establishing and defeating hierarchies in prestate societies is explored through the use of Annette Weiner's concept of "inalienable possessions." Inalienable possessions are objects made to be kept (not exchanged), have symbolic and economic power that cannot be transferred, and are often used to authenticate the ritual authority of corporate groups. Ethnographic examples from Zuni are used to understand the range of individually and collectively owned inalienable objects in Pueblo societies. I then use three classes of these objects from archaeological contexts to gain insight into the history of collective prestige structures in the Southwest. I argue that inalienable goods are more useful than shape prestige goods for understanding the role of social valuables in many nonstate societies, especially those in which inequalities are based on ritual knowledge.     

Life equations for the senescence process

The Gompertz law of mortality quantitatively describes the mortality rate of humans and almost all multicellular animals. However, its underlying kinetic mechanism is unclear. The Gompertz law cannot explain the mortality plateau at advanced ages and cannot give an explicit relationship between temperature and mortality. In this study a reaction kinetics model with a time dependent rate coefficient is proposed to describe the survival and senescence processes. A temperature-dependent mortality function was derived. The new mortality function becomes the Gompertz mortality function with the same relationship of parameters prescribed by the Strehler–Mildvan correlation when age is smaller than a characteristic value δ, and reaches the mortality plateau when age is greater than δ. A closed-form analytical expression for describing the relationship of average lifespan with temperature and other equations are derived from the new mortality function. The derived equations can be used to estimate the limit of average lifespan, predict the maximal longevity, calculate the temperature coefficient of lifespan, and explain the tendency of the survival curve. This prediction is consistent with the most recently reported mortality trajectories for single-year birth cohorts. This study suggests that the senescence process results from the imbalance between damaging energy and protecting energy for the critical chemical substance in the body. The rate of senescence of the organism increases while the protecting energy decreases. The mortality plateau is reached when the protecting energy decreases to its minimal levels. The decreasing rate of the protecting energy is temperature-dependent. This study is exploring the connection between the biochemical mechanism and demography.     

The Innovative Materiality of Revitalization Movements: Lessons from the Pueblo Revolt of 1680

ABSTRACT  Although Wallace's revitalization movement model has been successfully utilized in scores of ethnographic and ethnohistorical studies of societies throughout the world, revitalization is considerably less well documented in archaeological contexts. An examination of the materiality of revitalization movements affords an opportunity to redress this lack by investigating how material culture creates and constrains revitalization phenomena. In this article, I reconsider the revitalization model through a case study focusing on the archaeology of the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, emphasizing the central role of materiality in the formation and mediation of these movements. In doing so, I examine the archaeological signatures of revitalization movements, concluding that they are highly negotiated and heterogeneous phenomena and that the materiality of these episodes cultivates cultural innovation. I also seek to demonstrate that the distinctive types of material culture produced through revitalization are not epiphenomenal but, rather, are crucially constitutive of revitalizing processes.     

Functional evaluation of culture filtrates of Bacillus subtilis and Pseudomonas fluorescens on the mortality and hatching of Meloidogyne javanica

Rhizospheric bacteria Bacillus subtilis and Pseudomonas fluorescens are two widely tested biological control agents against root-knot nematodes (RKN) of different crops. However, their performance as bio-control agents varies with their place of origin. Culture filtrates of rhizospheric bacteria contain some intermediary metabolites that have nematicidal activity. An in vitro experiment was undertaken to evaluate the functionality of culture filtrates of B. subtilis (MN252542.1) and P. fluorescens (MN256394.1) at different concentrations (1.0%, 2.5%, 5.0%, 7.0%, 10.0% and 25.0%) on the hatching and mortality of Meloidogyne javanica at different time span. Bacterial strains were isolated from rhizospheric soils of Bangladesh. At three days after incubation (DAI), 25.0% concentration of culture filtrates of both B. subtilis and P. fluorescens showed 100.0% mortality of second stage juveniles (J₂) of M. javanica. Additionally, 25.0% concentration of culture filtrates of both bacteria showed 100.0% inhibition of hatching at one week after incubation (WAI). A decreasing trend in hatching of M. javanica was observed with the increment of the concentration of culture filtrates and progression of incubation time. The findings of this experiment reveal that culture filtrates of these accessions of B. subtilis and P. fluorescens are effective for controlling M. javanica and would be potential candidates for developing bio-nematicides.     

The Politics of Multiplication in a Failed Soviet Irrigation Project,Or, How Sasyk Has Been Kept from the Sea

Between 1976 and 1980, a Soviet agro-industrial project turned the Sasyk estuary in southern Ukraine into a freshwater irrigation reservoir. While the project failed to produce irrigable water, it had many negative environmental consequences. Despite two decades of activism, this water body persists in its freshwater state. To understand how this situation persists, resources need to be conceived as materialities emergent in and distributed across assemblages of human and nonhuman elements rather than pre-existing substances. This move helps reveal a politics of multiplication that has enabled officials to sustain the resource potential of Danube–Dnister Irrigation System waters. As recognition of Sasyk as polluted and valueless increased, officials mobilized linkages that consolidated Sasyk as a fish reservoir, and its main canal as irrigable and drinking water, thereby stymieing activists' restoration campaign.