Third millennium changing times

2009 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 142-148
Author(s):  
Rita P. Wright

Shannon Dawdy has presented us with a provocative dialogue on the question ‘is archaeology useful?’ In it, she forecasts a rather bleak future for our field, raising doubts about whether archaeology should be useful and whether it is ‘threatened with its own end-time’. Woven throughout her paper are major concerns about the use of archaeology for nationalistic ends and heritage projects which she deems fulfil the needs of archaeologists rather than those of the public they serve. In the final section of her paper, when she asks, ‘can archaeology save the world?’, Dawdy recommends that we reorient our research ‘away from reconstructions of the past and towards problems of the present’ (p. 140). In my contribution to this dialogue, I introduce an issue that reflects on cultural heritage, antiquities and artefact preservation, which, though they may seem antithetical, are closely aligned with Dawdy's concerns. As a prehistorian with a focus on the third millennium B.C. in the Near East and South Asia, I consider these issues to be the ‘big stories’ that have emerged in the early years of this third millennium, and those that speak directly to the usefulness of archaeology. Of course, it is not the only thing we do, but it is ‘useful’.

2009 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ramon Llopis-Goig

Racism and Xenophobia in Spanish Football: Facts, Reactions and PoliciesContrary to what is sometimes supposed, racism is not a phenomenon of the past. In fact, it is one of the major challenges of the present and future in Europe and Spain. Besides providing an incomparable sense of belonging, football stadiums are also an excellent platform to express racist and xenophobic attitudes and behaviours. In Spain, for years many players have suffered abuse and insults, although it is black and ethnic minority players who receive the most harassment. Thus, the problem of racism has increased recently in Spanish football, as shown by the emission of monkey noises toward black players and the use of racist slogans and symbols in the stadiums.This paper analyses the forms of racism and xenophobia in Spanish football, as well as the actions promoted and carried out by various institutions and agents to prevent and reduce these types of behaviour. The aim of this paper is to make a contribution based on figures and reflections on the types of racism and xenophobia in the world of football in Spain. The article is divided into three major parts. The first reviews some concepts of the scientific study of racism and xenophobia, placing them in the context of Spanish football. The second contains an overview of racism in European football and describes the situation in Spain, providing some empirical data about its incidence in recent years. The third and final section presents a classification and analysis of different antiracist reactions, actions and initiatives carried out recently in Spain with the aim of combating racism in Spanish football.


2004 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-42
Author(s):  
Anders Gustafsson ◽  
Håkan Karlsson

This paper takes its point of departure in a critical and ethnographically directed discussion ofhow Swedish heritage management —in practiceconstructs, organises and presents the past (ke. , the cultural heritage) to the public at the rock-carvings in Tanum. This ethnographical approach is helpful when trying to move beyond the structures —and specific ways of viewing the world —that are a consequence of our own archaeological socialisation. Suddenly activities that, with an archaeological eye, seem to be completely normal, present themselves instead as peculiar examples of the culture ofcontemporary archaeology/heritage management. In this paper we present examples —derived from both the past and present —ofhow this specific culture approach handles and stages the rock-carvings in Tanum. It is stressed that, for various reasons and not least ethical and democratic ones, this culture and its rituals need to be examined even further from an ethnographical point of view


1966 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 123-145 ◽  

Neil Hamilton Fairley, an outstanding figure in the world of tropical medicine during the period which spanned the two world wars, was born in Australia, and spent his early years in that country. He was of Scottish extraction, as his grandfather was one of a group who emigrated to Australia from a small village in the environs of Hamilton, in Lanarkshire, a fact which accounts for the grandson’s middle name. His father, James Fairley, was a bank manager with strong country interests who spent most of his life in Victoria. Of his mother, nee Margaret Louise Jones, Neil writes with affection, and much admiration. She bore six sons, four of whom reached adult life and took up medicine as a career. One, having qualified M.D., Melbourne, and F.R.C.S., England, specialized in surgery, but died on service during World War I. A second, also M.D., Melbourne, and later F.R.C.P., London, and F.R.A.C.P., ultimately became senior physician to the Royal Melbourne Hospital, while the third, who contracted tuberculosis as a student, did not specialize and entered general practice. Neil had his schooling at Scotch College, where in his last year he was ‘dux’ in the matriculation class. He went on to study medicine at Melbourne University, and had a distinguished career, gaining many awards and qualifying M.B., B.S., with first-class honours in 1915. In these early years he was an athlete of no mean calibre and won, first the public school open high jumping championship, and later the inter-varsity high jumping championship of Australia.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Abbiss

This article offers a ‘post-heritage’ reading of both iterations of Upstairs Downstairs: the LondonWeekend Television (LWT) series (1971–5) and its shortlived BBC revival (2010–12). Identifying elements of subversion and subjectivity allows scholarship on the LWT series to be reassessed, recognising occasions where it challenges rather than supports the social structures of the depicted Edwardian past. The BBC series also incorporates the post-heritage element of self-consciousness, acknowledging the parallel between its narrative and the production’s attempts to recreate the success of its 1970s predecessor. The article’s first section assesses the critical history of the LWT series, identifying areas that are open to further study or revised readings. The second section analyses the serialised war narrative of the fourth series of LWT’s Upstairs, Downstairs (1974), revealing its exploration of female identity across multiple episodes and challenging the notion that the series became more male and upstairs dominated as it progressed. The third section considers the BBC series’ revised concept, identifying the shifts in its main characters’ positions in society that allow the series’ narrative to question the past it evokes. This will be briefly contrasted with the heritage stability of Downton Abbey (ITV, 2010–15). The final section considers the household of 165 Eaton Place’s function as a studio space, which the BBC series self-consciously adopts in order to evoke the aesthetics of prior period dramas. The article concludes by suggesting that the barriers to recreating the past established in the BBC series’ narrative also contributed to its failure to match the success of its earlier iteration.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Abbiss

This article offers a ‘post-heritage’ reading of both iterations of Upstairs Downstairs: the LondonWeekend Television (LWT) series (1971–5) and its shortlived BBC revival (2010–12). Identifying elements of subversion and subjectivity allows scholarship on the LWT series to be reassessed, recognising occasions where it challenges rather than supports the social structures of the depicted Edwardian past. The BBC series also incorporates the post-heritage element of self-consciousness, acknowledging the parallel between its narrative and the production’s attempts to recreate the success of its 1970s predecessor. The article’s first section assesses the critical history of the LWT series, identifying areas that are open to further study or revised readings. The second section analyses the serialised war narrative of the fourth series of LWT’s Upstairs, Downstairs (1974), revealing its exploration of female identity across multiple episodes and challenging the notion that the series became more male and upstairs dominated as it progressed. The third section considers the BBC series’ revised concept, identifying the shifts in its main characters’ positions in society that allow the series’ narrative to question the past it evokes. This will be briefly contrasted with the heritage stability of Downton Abbey (ITV, 2010–15). The final section considers the household of 165 Eaton Place’s function as a studio space, which the BBC series self-consciously adopts in order to evoke the aesthetics of prior period dramas. The article concludes by suggesting that the barriers to recreating the past established in the BBC series’ narrative also contributed to its failure to match the success of its earlier iteration.


2003 ◽  
Vol 20 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 208-210
Author(s):  
Zaineb Lstrabadi

Dorothy Drummond's book was born at the dawn of the third millennium,when the author was in Jerusalem. She had taken notes throughout hertravels in the Holy Land, which she defines not only as the land of historicPalestine, but also the lands of present-day Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Iraq,and Egypt (i.e., where the Patriarchs, Prophets, and the Holy Familyroamed). Rather than write a travelogue, she decided to write a book aboutthe Arab-Israeli conflict while interspersing her personal comments (initalics) about her journeys. Her intent is not to "answer the question posedin the title of this book. Rather, by shedding light on dark corners, itattempts to bring understanding," as she explains in the prologue.The book is divided into three parts: a discussion of the IsraeliPalestinianconflict in the present, a discussion of the roots of the conflicttraveling 4,000 years into the past, and a brief discussion of how negotiationis the only way to resolve the conflict. There are maps and pho tographsthroughout the book, as well as a 40-page glossary of the HolyLand's people and places. Drummond has written the work in the presenttense, because of the immediacy of all that has happened in the MiddleEast, but the discussion ultimately centers on the area between theMediterranean Sea and the Jordan River.Her book promises to be a good, balanced account written in a wonwonderfullyaccessible style. However, early on it runs into problems. Forexample, when she talks about the 1956 Israeli attack on Egypt, she fails ...


Author(s):  
Marie-Sophie de Clippele

AbstractCultural heritage can offer tangible and intangible traces of the past. A past that shapes cultural identity, but also a past from which one sometimes wishes to detach oneself and which nevertheless needs to be remembered, even commemorated. These themes of memory, history and oblivion are examined by the philosopher Paul Ricoeur in his work La mémoire, l’histoire, l’oubli (2000). Inspired by these ideas, this paper analyses how they are closely linked to cultural heritage. Heritage serves as a support for memory, even if it can be mishandled, which in turn can affect heritage policies. Memory and heritage can be abused as a result of wounds from the past or for reasons of ideological manipulation or because of a political will to force people to remember. Furthermore, heritage, as a vehicule of memory, contributes to historical knowledge, but can remain marked by a certain form of subjectivism during the heritage and conservation operation, for which heritage professionals (representatives of the public authority or other experts) are responsible. Yet, the responsibility for conserving cultural heritage also implies the need to avoid any loss of heritage, and to fight against oblivion. Nonetheless, this struggle cannot become totalitarian, nor can it deprive the community of a sometimes salutary oblivion to its own identity construction. These theoretical and philosophical concepts shall be examined in the light of legal discourse, and in particular in Belgian legislation regarding cultural heritage. It is clear that the shift from monument to heritage broadens the legal scope and consequently raises the question of who gets to decide what is considered heritage according to the law, and whether there is something such as a collective human right to cultural heritage. Nonetheless, this broadening of the legislation extends the State intervention into cultural heritage, which in turn entails certain risks, as will be analysed with Belgium’s colonial heritage.


2020 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 241-248
Author(s):  
Engin Yilmaz ◽  
Yakut Akyön ◽  
Muhittin Serdar

AbstractCOVID-19 is the third spread of animal coronavirus over the past two decades, resulting in a major epidemic in humans after SARS and MERS. COVID-19 is responsible of the biggest biological earthquake in the world. In the global fight against COVID-19 some serious mistakes have been done like, the countries’ misguided attempts to protect their economies, lack of international co-operation. These mistakes that the people had done in previous deadly outbreaks. The result has been a greater economic devastation and the collapse of national and international trust for all. In this constantly changing environment, if we have a better understanding of the host-virus interactions than we can be more prepared to the future deadly outbreaks. When encountered with a disease which the causative is unknown, the reaction time and the precautions that should be taken matters a great deal. In this review we aimed to reveal the molecular footprints of COVID-19 scientifically and to get an understanding of the pandemia. This review might be a highlight to the possible outbreaks.


2021 ◽  
pp. 002216782110180
Author(s):  
Luke Hockley

This article explores what it means to feel film. It does so through an exploration of the interconnections between Bergson, Deleuze, and Jung. Central to the argument is the ontological status of the image in these different philosophical and psychological traditions. In particular, image is seen as an encapsulation of coming into being, or what Bergson terms durée. To feel film is to engage with its therapeutic capacity to bring us into being. In the consulting room and in the cinema, this process is embodied and in some way created either between client and therapist or viewer and screen. The elusive present moment is the site at which the past permeates the present, creating as it does feeling toned entry into the process of becoming. Jung thought of this as central to individuation and Bergson as central to being. Feeling film from this perspective becomes a way of finding ourselves in both the world of the film and in our individual psyche.


Viruses ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 569
Author(s):  
Jean-Nicolas Tournier ◽  
Joseph Kononchik

The eradication of infectious diseases has been achieved only once in history, in 1980, with smallpox. Since 1988, significant effort has been made to eliminate poliomyelitis viruses, but eradication is still just out of reach. As the goal of viral disease eradication approaches, the ability to recreate historically eradicated viruses using synthetic biology has the potential to jeopardize the long-term sustainability of eradication. However, the emergence of the severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus (SARS-CoV)-2 pandemic has highlighted our ability to swiftly and resolutely respond to a potential outbreak. This virus has been synthetized faster than any other in the past and is resulting in vaccines before most attenuated candidates reach clinical trials. Here, synthetic biology has the opportunity to demonstrate its truest potential to the public and solidify a footing in the world of vaccines.


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