Journal articles on the topic 'Civilization, South American'

Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire reveals Blanche’s tragic fate in the period of social change from the perspective of sexual conflict, and reveals the contest between the declining traditional civilization of the South and the emerging industrial civilization in American history. The play renders symbolism to show incisively and vividly the collision between the industrial civilization of the north and the planting civilization of the south, as well as the collision between personal fantasy and the reality of that time. In order to highlight the theme better, the writer skillfully uses various symbolic techniques to make the tragic fate of the heroine full of strong appeal, thus successfully deducing the tragedy of the fall of modern society.

Nature is full of mysteries which compel one to explore the hidden passages. The passionate urge might take a traveller into the deepest corners of forgotten lands which have truths to be unraveled. Each and every space dynamics has its own temporality and ideological framework which shapes the entire course of ones ideas. The paper will talk about the travelling account of Che Guevara captured in his memoir The Motorcycle Diaries. The book traces the early travels of this Marxist revolutionary. The idea behind is to mark the curvature of topological transformation and its impact on the ideological framework of a person. The paper will explore the interconnections and impact of different spaces encountered during a travel and the nature of discourse which develops during such explorations. Ideas have a disposition to travel with the moving discourse where the architectural domain shapes the outline of the traveller’s thought process. Here Che Guevara’s trip through South America will portray the flow of ideas through different spaces formulating the base for his revolutionary ideas. Through the account of Francisco Pizarro during the conquest of Incan civilization and through the impact of this event on the civilization as a collective whole, the paper will attempt to analyze the ethical curvature of two distinct civilizations, namely the Incan and the Christian Imperial West. The conquest of the South American continent and the consequent clash was cataclysmic, as the socio-economic subversion is still embedded almost non- retrievably deep in terms of its collateral. The paper will include “Heights of Machu Picchu” by Pablo Neruda which again is set during his travelling account to Machu Picchu, which is the marker of a lost civilization where the distorted architecture echoes the richness and the loss at the same time.

This article focuses on some of the religious factors that shaped the pro-Southern lobby in Britain during the American Civil War and Reconstruction. British opinion cannot be explained only in terms of class and party. In exploring other determinants, the ideas and activities of wealthy High Churchman and Conservative politician Beresford Hope offer promising avenues of inquiry, for Hope saw in the American Union, and Southern secession, a religious dimension, represented most clearly in the Episcopal Church. To the more familiar (to historians) reasons why the South gained support in Britain—relating to economic and political interests—Hope added a deeper commitment arising from a sense of cultural affinity (the “Englishness” of the South) and from religious conviction (to him the Church, and indeed Christianity, seemed stronger in the South than in the North). This indicates a belief that Britain and the South were bound together by common Christian civilization.

Abstract This study is part of the current trend of expanding ‘histories of international law’. From a regional perspective, I analyse not just the South American dimension of the process known as the ‘universalization of international law science’, but also focus on the ‘ideological use’ of ius gentium europaeum in the debate on the occupation of indigenous territories governing by the nation Mapuche in the south of Chile (1861–1883) and then the discussion on the legitimacy of the Saltpeter War between Chile and the Bolivian-Peruvian Alliance (1879–1884). I argue that the Chilean national legal discourse applied a core argument of nineteenth-century international law to legitimize its foreign policy in those conflicts: ‘the standard of civilization’. Thus, it is possible to speak about a domestic recreation of imperial logic as part of the globalization of the European law of nations in the nineteenth century.

During the Klondike Gold Rush, Americans and Britons connected their joint local experiences with the simultaneous colonial conquests in Cuba, the Philippines, South Africa, and China through the ideology of Anglo-Saxonism. From 1898 to 1901 Dawson's newspapers, memoirs, correspondence, and commercial photography demonstrated the power of this symbolic language of flags and balls, heated rhetoric and dazzling cartoons. The Klondike Nugget, the first newspaper in town and the only one run by Americans, took up the claims of global Anglo-Saxonism with the most fervor, although its sentiments were often echoed in the Canadian-edited Dawson Daily News. Differences re-emerged, especially over the boundary between Alaska and Canada, but this brief episode remained deeply imprinted in narratives of the ““two Wests””——both of the North American frontier West and the West as Anglo-Saxon civilization——told at the turn of the twentieth century.

AbstractIn the early twentieth century, encyclopedias addressed to children and youths became special reference works concerning science and technology education. In search of greater comprehension of this historical process, I analyse The Children's Encyclopedia’s representation of science and technology, and how it was re-edited by the North American publishing company that bought its copyrights and promoted its circulation in several countries. Furthermore, I examine how its contents were appropriated in its translations into Portuguese and Spanish, which circulated in Latin America in the first half of the twentieth century. The comparison between the different versions reveals that the writings of science and technology are practically the same, with significant changes only in literature and in the approach of historical and geographical themes. I then argue that, even keeping the scientific contents virtually unchanged, these versions of the encyclopedia gave it a new meaning, because of the contexts in which they circulated. Finally, I show how the appropriations of the encyclopedia contributed to the promotion of scientific values and technological innovation as the core development and as a model of civilization for South American nations.

In 1887, T. Thomas Fortune published an editorial, “The Negro's Peculiar Work,” in the black newspaper theNew York Freeman, wherein he reflected on a recent keynote speech delivered by Reverend J. C. Price on 3 January in Columbia, South Carolina, to commemorate Emancipation Day. Price, a member of the Zion Wesley Institute of the AME Zion Church, hailed from North Carolina and his denomination considered him to be “the most popular and eloquent Negro of the present generation.” On the occasion meant to reflect on the meaning of the Emancipation Proclamation (which went into effect on 1 January 1863) for present-day African Americans, Price turned his gaze away from the US towards Africa. In his speech “The American Negro, His Future, and His Peculiar Work” Price declared that African Americans had a duty to redeem Africans and help them take back their continent from the Europeans who had partitioned it in 1884–85. He railed,The whites found gold, diamonds, and other riches in Africa. Why should not the Negro? Africa is their country. They should claim it: they should go to Africa, civilize those Negroes, raise them morally, and by education show them how to obtain wealth which is in their own country, and take the grand continent as their own.Price's “Black Man's Burden” projected American blacks as agents of capitalism, civilization, and Christianity in Africa. Moreover, Price suggested that African American suffering under slavery, failed Reconstruction, and Jim Crow placed them in a unique position to combat imperialism. He was not alone in seeing parallels between the conditions of “Negroes” on both sides of the Atlantic. Many African Americans, Afro-Canadians, and West Indians saw imperialism in Africa as operating according to Jim Crow logic: white Europeans would subordinate and segregate Africans, while economically exploiting their labor to bring wealth to Europe.

AbstractThis article reconstructs the American career of the Manila-born author Ramon Reyes Lala. Lala became a naturalized United States citizen shortly before the War of 1898 garnered public interest in the history and geography of the Philippines. He capitalized on this interest by fashioning himself into an Oxford-educated nationalist exiled in the United States for his anti-Spanish activism, all the while hiding a South Asian background. Lala's spirited defense of American annexation and war earned him the political patronage of the Republican Party. Yet though Lala offered himself as a ‘model’ Philippine-American citizen, his patrons offered Lala as evidence of U.S. benevolence and Philippine civilization potential shorn of citizenship. His embodied contradictions, then, extended to his position as a producer of colonial knowledge, a racialized commodity, and a representative Filipino in the United States when many in the archipelago would not recognize him as such. Lala's advocacy for American Empire, I contend, reflected an understanding of nationality born of diasporic merchant communities, while his precarious success in the middle-class economy of print and public speaking depended on his deft maneuvering between modalities of power hardening in terms of race. His career speaks more broadly to the entwined and contradictory processes of commerce, race formation, and colonial knowledge production.

Jemmy Button was an Indian of Tierra del Fuego who inadvertently inspired four generations of nineteenth-century English missionaries to risk their earthly lives to save his eternal soul. These earnest evangelicals made five expeditions to Jemmy's South American homeland to make Christians of him and his countrymen. One of these ventures was an embarrassing fiasco, another ended in death by starvation, and a third led to a treacherous massacre.This young Indian's unintended influence also touched evolutionary thought. Jemmy Button was a friend and companion to Charles Darwin on the famous voyage of H.M.S. Beagle. Jemmy's versatile personality was intriguing to Darwin. He could be a naked Indian hunter when in Tierra del Fuego, and a foppish English gentleman when in the company of British naval officers. His ability to change like this inspired Darwin's earliest written reflections on the human capacity to progress from savagery to civilization.

Ho Chi Minh City is a city which has received and accumulated many cultures and religions from around the world, from Oriental culture to Western civilization, from West Asian and East Asian cultures to South Asian and Southeast Asian cultures. The cultures of some African and Latin American countries have also arrived recently. Most world religions, regional religions, national religions and even new religions are present in the city. The characteristic of religions and cultural identities of Ho Chi Minh City is in the process of transformation, receipt and selection of the cultural and religion elements of those cultures. Based on the research results of a scientific research on the topic, “Cultural and religion life in Ho Chi Minh City in the era of international integration”, we would like to share some opinions about the characteristics of culture and religions in the process of cultural exchange, acculturation and accumulation of Ho Chi Minh City from traditional to modern stage.

  This article discusses the political projects of civilizational level, which are designed and implemented in South America. The author examines MERCOSUR as the largest regional civilizational political project, its sociocultural foundation and institutional superstructure; functionality of the “core state” in formation and maintenance of the South American civilizational political project; problems of development and future implementation. The article reveals conflict potential of MERCOSUR, as well as sociocultural capabilities for its overcoming by the “core state” of the project. The research was conducted via application of civilizational-project methodology of interpretation of policy, which is based on methodological synthesis of the principles of project approach with provisions of the theory of civilizations. The author was able to determine the value grounds of MERCOSUR, which comprise its sociocultural foundation; identify the countries competing for status of the “core state” within the framework of this project. The nature of commonality between the key participants of the projects is identified. Problems and prospect of further development of MERCOSUR civilizational projects are defined.  

Rome after the Second World War presented something of an anomaly. Of all the traditional capitals of European civilization it was the least affected by the conflict. Because of the Pope's presence, it had not been bombed, and it had escaped the heavy fighting in the campaigns to the south. Indeed, so easily was it taken that one film was to show the Eternal City captured by a single jeep. Italy was also faster to recover than any of the other combatants. American money flooded into the country, and political life was quickly under way again. All this made it a good place for visitors, a relative bright spot amidst a shattered landscape. Harold Acton, the English historian who went there in 1948, remarked that “After the First World War American writers and artists had migrated to Paris: now they pitched upon Rome.” Among those who visited Rome or lived there for a period after the war were Edmund Wilson, Gore Vidal, Tennessee Williams, Frederic Prokosch, Daniel Cory, Alfred Kazin, Samuel Barber, Robert Lowell and Elizabeth Hardwick (slightly later), as well as Acton himself and a host of less well-known figures. Many were entertained by Lawrence and Babel Roberts, under whose influence “the Roman Academy became an international rendezvous for artists and intellectuals.” While they were there, a large proportion of these writers made a pilgrimage to the Convent of the Blue Sisters, where since 1941 George Santayana had been living in a single room.

Abstract This essay reviews a major new study of European Renaissance Arabist-humanist philology as it was actually practiced, humanist neoclassicizing anti-Arabism notwithstanding. While definitive and philologically magisterial, that study nevertheless falls prey structurally and conceptually to the very eurocentrism whose ideological-textual genesis it chronicles. Situating it within the comparative global early modern philologies framework that has now been proposed in the volume World Philology and the present journal is a necessary remedy—but only a partial one; for that framework too still obscures the multiplicity of specifically genetically Western early modernities, thus hobbling comparative history of philology. I therefore propose a new framework appropriate to the study of Greco-Arabo-Persian and Greco-Arabo-Latin as the two parallel and equally powerful philosophical-philological trajectories that together defined early modern Western—i.e., Hellenic-Abrahamic, Islamo-Judeo-Christian, west of South India—intellectual history: taḥqīq vs. taqlīd, progressivism vs. declinism. But a broadened and more balanced analytical framework alone cannot save philology, much less Western civilization, from the throes of its current existential crisis: for we philologists of the Euro-American academy are fevered too by the cosmological ill that is reflexive scientistic materialism. As antidote, I prescribe a progressivist, postmodern return to early modern Western deconstructive-reconstructive cosmic philology as prerequisite for the discipline’s survival, and perhaps even triumph, in the teeth of totalitarian colonialist-capitalist modernity.

AbstractThe small community of the Tomárâho, an ethnic group culturally derived from the Zamucos, have become known in the South American and world anthropological scenario in recent times. This group, far from the banks of the Paraguay river, remained concealed from organized modern societies for many years. Like any other groups of people in close contact with nature, the Tomárâho developed a profound and rich world-view which parallels other more widely researched aboriginal cultures as well as showing distinctive features of their own. This is also apparent in their imagery of the sky and of the characters that are closely connected with the celestial sphere.This paper is based on the lengthy anthropological studies of G. Sequera. We have recently undertaken a project to carry out a detailed analysis of the different astronomical elements present in the imagined sky of the Tomárâho and other Chamacoco ethnic groups. We will briefly review some aspects of this aboriginal culture: places where they live, regions of influence in the past, their linguistic family, their living habits and how the advancement of civilization affected their culture and survival. We will later mention the fieldwork carried out for decades and some of the existing studies and publications. We will also make a brief description of the methodology of this work and special anthropological practices. Last but not least, we will focus on the Tomárâho conception of the sky and describe the research work we have been doing in recent times.

-William Roseberry, Michel-Rolph Trouillot, Peasants and capital: Dominica in the world economy. Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press. Johns Hopkins Studies in Atlantic History and Culture, 1988. xiv + 344 pp.-Michel-Rolph Trouillot, Robert A. Myers, Dominica. Oxford, Santa Barbara, Denver: Clio Press, World Bibliographic Series, volume 82. xxv + 190 pp.-Michel-Rolph Trouillot, Robert A. Myers, A resource guide to Dominica, 1493-1986. New Haven: Human Area Files, HRA Flex Books, Bibliography Series, 1987. 3 volumes. xxxv + 649.-Stephen D. Glazier, Colin G. Clarke, East Indians in a West Indian town: San Fernando, Trinidad, 1930-1970. London: Allen and Unwin, 1986 xiv + 193 pp.-Kevin A. Yelvington, M.G. Smith, Culture, race and class in the Commonwealth Caribbean. Foreword by Rex Nettleford. Mona: Department of Extra-Mural Studies, University of the West Indies, 1984. xiv + 163 pp.-Aart G. Broek, T.F. Smeulders, Papiamentu en onderwijs: veranderingen in beeld en betekenis van de volkstaal op Curacoa. (Utrecht Dissertation), 1987. 328 p. Privately published.-John Holm, Peter A. Roberts, West Indians and their language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988 vii + 215 pp.-Kean Gibson, Francis Byrne, Grammatical relations in a radical Creole: verb complementation in Saramaccan. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company, Creole Language Library, vol. 3, 1987. xiv + 294 pp.-Peter L. Patrick, Pieter Muysken ,Substrata versus universals in Creole genesis. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company, Creol Language Library - vol 1, 1986. 315 pp., Norval Smith (eds)-Jeffrey P. Williams, Glenn G. Gilbert, Pidgin and Creole languages: essays in memory of John E. Reinecke. Honolulu: University of Hawaii, 1987. x + 502 pp.-Samuel M. Wilson, C.N. Dubelaar, The petroglyphs in the Guianas and adjacent areas of Brazil and Venezuela: an inventory. With a comprehensive biography of South American and Antillean petroglyphs. Los Angeles: The Institute of Archaeology of the University of California, Los Angeles. Monumenta Archeologica 12, 1986. xi + 326 pp.-Gary Brana-Shute, Henk E. Chin ,Surinam: politics, economics, and society. London and New York: Francis Pinter, 1987. xvii, 192 pp., Hans Buddingh (eds)-Lester D. Langley, Howard J. Wiarda ,The communist challenge in the Caribbean and Central America. With E. Evans, J. Valenta and V. Valenta. Lanham, MD: American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. xiv + 249 pp., Mark Falcoff (eds)-Forrest D. Colburn, Michael Kaufman, Jamaica under Manley: dilemmas of socialism and democracy. London, Toronto, Westport: Zed Books, Between the Lines and Lawrence Hill, 1985. xvi 282 pp.-Dale Tomich, Robert Miles, Capitalism and unfree labour: anomaly or necessity? London. New York: Tavistock Publications. 1987. 250 pp.-Robert Forster, Mederic-Louis-Elie Moreau de Saint-Mery, A civilization that perished: the last years of white colonial rule in Haiti. Translated, abridged and edited by Ivor D. Spencer. Lanham, New York, London: University Press of America, 1985. xviii + 295 pp.-Carolyn E. Fick, Robert Louis Stein, Léger Félicité Sonthonax: the lost sentinel of the Republic. Rutherford, Madison: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press; London and Toronto: Associated University Press, 1985. 234 pp.

Abstract The following article is concerned with the analysis of the symbols of eagle and jaguar in the native cultures from the Amazon area, which, have inspired, among others, Chilean author Isabel Allende in her novel City of the Beasts. The animal motives become an integral part of the cultural tradition of the South American indigenous tribes that the author mentions. Legends and myths that the inhabitants of the rainforest keep to this day often describe the relation between person's life and the surrounding nature. In this respect, eagle and jaguar play an important role. From an anthropological point of view, the native peoples of the Amazon are closely tied with these animals. Their culture contains customs and rituals in which they imitate these worshipped animals. The aim of these rituals is to acquire animal hunting skills and strength. In literature, this connection can be even stronger. There are occasionally marriages between an eagle or jaguar and human characters, who live side by side. Such connection is not possible with other animals like sloths or monkeys. The reason for this is primarily the fact that only jaguars and eagles make living in a similar fashion to human characters of native myths. They hunt like people, eat what humans do and they share the same hunting grounds and habitat. In the novel, Isabel Allende refers to the jaguar and eagle as totem animals. They are symbols of profound connection between humans and nature. In the course of the story, the eagle and jaguar accompany the young heroes Alexander Cold and his friend Nadia on their initiation journey through the forest. At the end of the story, the young couple comes back to the civilization to convey the message of the indigenous people of Amazon, seeking an end of the bloodshed these tribes face.

Lost Civilizations is at once intriguing but also challenging to all conventional wisdom. Perhaps that is as it should be and Willis certainly created an interesting compendium of mysterious archeological events combined with a generous exploration of mythology. Readers of the SSE Journal should know I am not a fan of the “Out of Africa” theory. There have been too many recent discoveries made to support the notion that human life began in a single remote location. We can think of the discovery of the Denisovan that interbred with hominids that did migrate from Africa. What Willis repeatedly points to is apparent DNA anomalies in which samples indicate connections between groups for which there is no logical explanation. As an example, there are traces in Australia that are commensurate with those from South America that must have occurred long before any known contact had happened. While Willis would agree, Lost Civilizations suggests the timelines may be off by many thousands of years, a concept that is hard to integrate into demonstrable history. If somebody built things, where did such previously unknown groups come from? It is in questioning that Willis adds significant value. What do we mean by “lost civilizations” is basic to the book? But more fundamentally he asks how is “civilization” defined? There are multiple definitions and he states that what it means to be civilized does not equate to the organization of villages or cities. Further, if civilizations were “lost” where did they come from and where did they go? How did seemingly thriving communities suddenly cease to exist? Then, why is it that some societies not only physically disappear, but also seem to be erased from the memories of survivors or other groups that may have interacted with them. His examples of lost groups abound and signal a warning to modern society. If previous complex organizations disappeared, often with no immediate trace, could the same thing happen to our current civilization.

ResumenLa prensa sudamericana, en particular la de Buenos Aires, tuvo un amplio y heterogéneo desarrollo en la segunda mitad del siglo XIX, resultado y expresión de diversas orientaciones políticas, caracterizándose por ser una prensa de opinión, doctrinaria, de trinchera y cada vez más informativa en virtud de los acontecimientos que marcaron el desarrollo de las sociedades latinoamericanas. Uno de esos eventos trascendentales a nivel regional fue la Guerra del Pacífico (1879-1883) que enfrentó a Chile contra la alianza de Perú y Bolivia. Este conflicto adquirió una importante dimensión internacional y generó un permanente interés informativo en la prensa argentina. Por consiguiente, el artículo tiene como objetivo caracterizar la actitud discursiva que adoptó parte de la prensa de Buenos Aires al momento de analizar y juzgar la conducta de Chile durante la Guerra del Pacífico. Planteamos la existencia de un “negativo imaginario internacional” que sematerializó en la formulación de un discurso periodístico que asignó a Chile y a los chilenos una conducta bélica “agresiva, expansionista y opuestaa los principios de la civilización”, la cual amenazaría potencialmente losintereses nacionales argentinos en el contexto de las disputas limítrofes entre ambos países.Palabras clave: Guerra del Pacífico; Argentina; Prensa; Opinión Pública“The american Prussia”: Argentinian press and international imaginary in Chile during the War of the Pacific (1879-1881)AbstractThe South American press, particularly in Buenos Aires, had a large and heterogeneous development in the second half of the Nineteenth Century, as a result and expression of different political persuasions, characterized by being a press of opinion, doctrinaire, of trench and increasingly informative under the events that marked the development of Latin American societies. One of those transcendent events at the regional level was the War of the Pacific (1879-1883) where Chile fought against Peru and Bolivia alliance. That conflict acquired an important international dimension and created a permanent information interest in Argentina press. Therefore, the article aims to characterize the discursive attitude adopted by part of the press of Buenos Aires at the time to analyze and judge the Chilean performance during the War of the Pacific. We propose the existence of an “international negative imaginary”, materialized in the formulation of a journalistic discourse that assigned to Chile and Chileans a war conduct that was “aggressive, expansionistand opposed to the principles of civilization”, which potentially threaten the national Argentine interests in the context of border disputes betweenthe two countries.Keywords: Pacific War; Argentina; press; public opinion“A Prussia americana”: imprensa argentina e imaginário internacional do Chile durante a Guerra do Pacífico (1879-1881)ResumoA imprensa sul-americana, particularmente Buenos Aires, teve um amplo e heterogêneo desenvolvimento na segunda meta de do século XIX, resultado e expressão das diversas orientações políticas, com a característica de ser uma imprensa de opinião, doutrinária e de trincheira, cada vez mais informativa em virtude dos acontecimentos que marcaram o desenvolvimento das sociedades latino-americanas. Um desses acontecimentos importantes a nível regional foi a Guerra do Pacífico (1879-1883) que enfrentou a Chile contra a aliança de Peru e Bolívia. Este conflito adquiriu uma dimensão internacional importante e gerou um permanente interesse informativo na imprensa argentina. Portanto, o artigo tem como objetivo caracterizar a atitude discursiva adotada pela imprensa de Buenos Aires ao momento de analisar e julgar aconduta do Chile durante a Guerra do Pacífico. Propomos a existência de um “negativo imaginário internacional” que se materializou na formulação de um discurso jornalístico que atribuiu ao Chile e aos chilenos uma conduta bélica “agressivo, expansionista e oposta aos princípios da civilização”, aqual poderia ameaçar os interesses nacionais argentinos no contexto das disputas fronteiriças entre os dois países.Palavras-chave: Guerra do Pacífico; Argentina; Imprensa; Opinião Pública

This article aims at describing the social life of the American people in several places that made the adventures of John Steinbeck as the author of the novel Travels with Charley in Search of America around the 1960s. American people’s lives are a part of world civilizations that literary readers need to know. This adventure was preceded by an author’s trip in New York City, then to California, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Maine, New Jersey, Saint Lawrence, Quebec, Niagara Falls, Ohio, Chicago, Illinois, Michigan, North Dakota, the Rocky Mountains, Washington, the West Coast, Oregon, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, New Orleans, Salinas, and again ended in New York. In processing research data, the writer uses one of the methods of literary research, namely the Dynamic Structural Approach which emphasizes the study of the intrinsic elements of literary work and the involvement of the author in his work. The intrinsic elements emphasized in this study are the physical and social settings. The research data were obtained from the results of a literature study which were then explained descriptively. The writer found a number of descriptions of the social life of the American people in the 1960s, namely the life of the city, the situation of the inland people, and ethnic discrimination. The people of the city are busy taking care of their profession and competing for careers, inland people living naturally without competing ambitions, and black African Americans have not enjoyed the progress achieved by the Americans. The description of American society related to the fictional story is divided by region, namely east, north, middle, west, and south. The social condition in the eastern region is dominated by beaches and mountains, and is engaged in business, commerce, industry, and agriculture. The comfortable landscape in the northern region spends the people time as breeders and farmers. The natural condition in the middle region of American is very suitable for agriculture, plantations, and animal husbandry. Many people in the western American region facing the Pacific Ocean become fishermen. The natural conditions from the plains and valleys to the hills make the southern region suitable for plantation land.

Indian and Chinese civilizations have economically dominated the world for 15 centuries, when they are overtaken by: Europe, America, Russia, the Arab states, Brazil, Mexico or Japan, shamefully entering a shadow cone that stretched 3-4 centuries. Towards the end of the twentieth century they begin to matter again, and during the twenty-first century it seems that they will replace the European Union and the United States, dividing the planet into two major spheres of influence, avoiding regionalization on religious or civilizational criteria or the multipolar world predicted by some geopolitics, so China will represent the continuity of the planned and agile economy of the USSR, but with a high dose of determination found locally in the Japanese and Koreans, while India will be the 3rd West after the end of world domination by Western Europe and the USA, based on democracy, parliament, federalism and the individual economy but also characteristics specific to the states of the planetary geopolitical south.

Cross border and inter country financial recourse is like a civilization hold. It is fundamentally important phenomenon to study. Purpose of this study is to investigate inter country global private financial flows in context of current financial regimes. Design of the study is quantitative based on a secondary data taken from website of World Development Indicators (WDI) 2020. A literature review of relevant studies extracted from renowned research databases is also integral part of the overall design of the study. For the purpose of analysis and investigation the study uses Grey Relational Analysis (GRA). GRA is a mathematical technique capable of handling a multitude of alternatives with plenty of criteria simultaneously. It is a ranking technique that generates the reference series, normalizes the data and compares the weighted average grey coefficients with reference series. GRA is a popular methodology espoused in grey systems theory. It is the study of eighty-three countries on the basis of five different criteria. The countries have been ranked according to Grey relational grades by using rank function of excel and are divided into seven different categories on the basis of intensity of financial flows. The categories have been made on the basis of ordinal scale e.g. exceptionally high level of private global financial flows, excellent, very good, good, fair, poor and very poor. Results show that China, Niger, Brazil, Mozambique, Mongolia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Cambodia, Grenada, Thailand, Indonesia, Argentina and Maldives have exceptionally high private financial flows, whereas, countries namely Lesotho, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Botswana, Guatemala, Solomon Islands, Afghanistan, Bolivia, Bhutan, Angola and Russian Federation have poor financial flows. Majorly, Arabian Countries (AC), Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) countries fall under exceptionally high ensign, whereas, member countries of Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) and Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) countries fall under very poor ensign. This study is useful for political governments, international agencies, researchers and academia (students and teachers of international finance). It also provides new information and deeper insights by way of assigning grey relational grades to countries and classifies them into seven groups. It also extends discussion to enlighten upon bloc level position.

Only in the recent few years have a number of facsimile publications on architecture offered a possibility of studying the original texts from different time periods. Those, already rare studies on the theory of architecture in the western civilization, almost regularly completely omit the Byzantine achievements in the so-called entirety of thoughtfulness (enkyklios paideia), that was a main characteristic of Byzantine learning. This learning, based on the ancient Greek and Hellenistic foundations, in many ways concern architecture, especially the architectural theory. That is why writing a good account of the architectural theory of this, historically such an important country as Byzantium, in such a long historical period (since 312 till 1453), has been a difficult task (this contribution is just the initial part of the study). One should not be disregarded that the architectural theories are never completely independent of historical geographical or even personal prejudices of their authors. In this sense, a subject matter of this treatise is just one 1141 year long part of the architectural theory of the West (West - in civilizational terms, not a political West), the part that rests on Christian foundations that is the Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Protestant ones, mainly. It is all treated in order, from ancient pagan Greece and Rome, ancient and Middle Ages Orthodox Byzantium, until Middle Ages and New Age Europe, altogether, Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Protestant Europe, and then those parts of the world in which the said civilizational circle managed to take root in: parts of Asia, North and South America, parts of Africa and Australia.

Occurred nearly a quarter of a century ago, the collapse of the Soviet Union - an event that led to the formation of a new configuration of the world-system. In this global role, the national significance of this event for Russia that she has to find their place in the world that actualizes a scientific discussion on this topic. Without public clarification and comparison of the ideological differences and disagreements it is difficult to imagine the development of a democratic society. Moreover, it is impossible to do without a debate in the society, standing in the darkness. Russia again, as in the beginning 1990-h years is in a situation of historical bifurcation. Russia to go their own way or try to rebuild themselves in the experience of the successful modernization of the States of the European, Asian, South American or African. They have used the Western (European) experience, without losing their national identity. Inherent in our ethnic consciousness and the inclination to extremes, Russian intellectuals keen on totally unproductive debates, like the endless, which is between "Westerners" and "Slavophil's" (in the current language - "fundamentalists"). The notorious dichotomy becomes more and more absurd, Recalling the disputes of "points" and "dull bits" from the famous novel of Jonathan Swift. The country is a completely different choice - effectiveness and development or the inefficiency and backwardness, modernization or preservation of its political and economic model, developed by reformers in 1990-ies. Today, therefore, Russia should not deifying the West, than succeeded ones and not the deification of exclusivity, what more you want to succeed others, but strong awareness of the reality and the pursuit of maximum expediency, pragmatism in the development of the achievements of Western civilization. If Asian countries are to successfully adopt the European (Western) modernization experience, then Russia as a European country should be more favorable conditions. In line with what is happening in the country discussions on ways of socio-economic development of Russia and its role and place in the emerging new global configuration, interactions with neighbors, primarily with the European Union and China in the context of the prospects of replacing the existing economic model and the upcoming modernization. Need to know life plans, orientation and attitudes of the Russian youth, its ideas about the place of Russia in a changing world. how it links its future with the future of their country. In the upcoming modernization, the main burden of its implementation will fall on the current young generation of Russians. In this regard, the article analyzes survey results of University students in six Federal districts of Russia.

The Moche civilization of the north coast of Peru is thought to be the first state-level society in South America. Understanding of the emergence, spread, and decline of this society, however, has been based almost entirely on relative ceramic phases, rather than absolute dates. This article reevaluates Moche political dynamics and intersite affiliations using radiocarbon dates associated with diagnostic ceramic styles. The phases of ceramic styles at individual sites are estimated using Bayesian models of published14C dates that have passed explicit selection criteria for reliability. The site-specific phases are incorporated into a regional chronology, which adds additional support to the idea that Moche was a collection of independent polities with complex and nuanced relationships. Based on absolute dates, Moche civilization appears to have spanned between cal AD 200–900, with a significant and socially meaningful increase in stylistic homogeneity between cal AD 600–650.

Gertrude Stein once remarked that history must be understood not as the passage of time, but as the killing of centuries. This killing of centuries takes a very long time, she added, and she discerned the final death throes of the nineteenth century—a period in thrall to science and the idea of civilizational progress—in the middle of World War II. Being an American Jew in France, that denouement was realized, for her, by Hitler's Germany, in the moment that it fell to American industrial war making. But Stein's insight might as easily and as correctly be applied to the analysis of anticolonialism and the collapse of European rule in South and Southeast Asia. It was there, after all, that the ideology of a civilizational mission was revealed in all its hypocrisy. Such, at least, is the impression one gathers from reading the works of Christopher Bayly and Tim Harper, Leela Gandhi, and Benedict Anderson, each of whom offers a perspective on the history of empire's end, and the rise of revolutionary and nationalist independence movements in Asia. As counterpoint to their insistently particularizing narration of these movements, James C. Scott sketches a deep history of recurrent antistatism as the context in which European empires made their ill-fated claims to civilizational exceptionalism, and in which anarchism could emerge as a technics of ungovernability.

The early and mid 20th century was a time of great interest in the rise of agriculture and its role in the evolution of civilizations societies in particular environments. Late 20th century efforts to reconstruct the nature and history of prehistoric farming societies in the northern lowlands of South America ranged from expansive hypotheses to regional case studies using archaeobotanical technologies then available. Since 2000, a large number of regional studies using expanded and refined methods have produced broadly interesting results. Approaches from the fields of geography and earth sciences are being recruited increasingly. The resulting empirical evidence does shed light on aspects of the history of human use of some plants but, as always, has raised more questions than it solved. Many of the problems interpreting the processual and evolutionary significance of these findings are methodological ones. This article reviews what seem to be the most important methodological and interpretive issues of this area of research for the tropical lowlands (up to c. 1500 m a.s.l) of northern South America.

This article represents an overview of different legal cultures. Author compares pluralistic legal systems, concomitant to Eastern societies, with monistic legal systems typical for Western civilizations. This article demonstrates the convergence of different legal traditions as the result of regional and global integration processes. Special attention has been given to Western legal culture. In this respect, the author analyzes fundamental features of European continental law, created by legislature, and of Anglo-American law primarily formed by judiciary. European Union has been in search for a medium solution. The aim is creating a combined legal system which would include both models of law. Such combined legal systems have existed in Scotland (United Kingdom), Quebec (Canada), Louisiana (The United States of America), and South Africa. However, it has not been well known that a similar combined legal system existed in Vojvodina between two world wars. This legal heritage, in the opinion of the author, could serve as a model for creating a new ius comunae europaeum. This model represents the evidence of a successful fusion of legisla?tive (parliamentary) law and common law. In 2005 Matica Srpska launched the research project 'Private Law in Vojvodina between Two World Wars' in order to present this legal heritage nationally and inter?nationally. This Collection of Papers displays preliminary results of this research.

The study of Rahman's, In The Light of What We Know, explores how Neo-orientalist strategies of neocons subjugated South Asian neo-orients in the name of humanitarian help in war-afflicted Afghanistan. The global forces have reverted to the past binaric divisions of 'us' and 'them' in order to gain their economic and political interests. Using Steger (2003) and Howe's (2002) critique of the validity of Huntington's thesis of 'clash of civilizations' (1997), the study examines that in post 9/11 Afghan scenario Americans seem to be engaged in the projects of welfare and civilizing missions but are covertly securing their politico-economic motives in the region through humanitarian interventions of martial, cultural, political nature.

Latin America and the Caribbean region (LAC), which includes more than thirty countries, is traditionally characterized by a complex combination of elements of homogeneity and heterogeneity. The latter, stemming from traditional economic social and political differentiation and ideological polarization, in the modern context strengthens regional contradictions and creates new division lines. At the same time, the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries was marked by a growing integration of the region into the global market and globalization processes in general. In order to provide an outlook on the possible future developments in LAC, the author examines how the key trends of the current world politics permeate the region. The theoretical framework of the paper is based on the methodology proposed by the Russian researcher M.M. Lebedeva who outlines three basic megatrends — globalization, integration, and democratization and their counter-trends — deglobalization, disintegration, and dedemocratization, accordingly. It is within this broader context of a complex interplay of these trends and counter-trends, that the dynamics of regional processes in LAC is conceived. On this basis, the author identifies three possible regional development scenarios. The first one presupposes strengthening of institutional linkages between North, Central, and South America on the basis of Pan-American ideas. The second implies civilizational ‘isolation’ of LAC within large but still only regional integration projects. Finally, the third scenario proceeds from the linear development of the current regional trends. It implies further fragmentation of LAC within subregional organizations and chaotization of regional international relations. The author concludes that currently the regional development is affected predominantly by counter-trends, which are evidenced by increasing isolationism, an impasse facing major integration projects and democratic institutions, and the growth of populist movements. At the same time, all this shows that Latin America is fully integrated in global economic and political processes since these counter-trends characterize the development of a contemporary system of international relations in general.

A useful paradigm for studying Mediterranean and world history is the concept behind a course I teach, “The Mediterranean as a Borderland.” The paradigm of the borderland was generated by policymakers and social scientists studying the American Southwest and developed for the field of history by Oscar Martinez at the University of Arizona. Arizona is in the borderland, the region close to the border between the United States and Mexico where the influence of Mexico can be directly felt. There is of course an equivalent region on the other side in Mexico that is directly influenced by its proximity to the United States. These two regions together comprise the borderland, and they are in many ways more similar to each other than either is to the rest of the nation it belongs to. Unlike the border itself, which divides one country from another, the borderland is the area where the two societies meet and overlap. The Mediterranean Sea is often seen as a border between Christian and Muslim civilizations to the north and south. It can therefore be studied as a borderland, the region where the two overlap. Such a study highlights similarities, influences, and exchanges rather than differences and oppositions; it forms a necessary corrective to today’s emphasis on the “clash of civilizations.” This paper gives a historiography of the borderland paradigm and its application in the Mediterranean, and compares it with the closely related concept of the frontier.

Comparative Area Studies (CAS) offers a template to bring the Global South back into the foreground of social science inquiry. CAS urges researchers to grapple directly with empirical variations derived from across the seemingly different global regions. CAS offers three comparative modes: intra-regional, cross-regional, and trans-regional. A number of scholars have used CAS’s comparative rubrics, even without knowing about the wider CAS agenda and program. CAS unsettles assumptions about discrete, fixed “regional” or civilizational blocks as well as about nomothetic theory-building aimed at universal or general laws. At the same time, CAS engages in the idea of medium-range theory-building, focusing empirical rigor and induction in order to create concepts and analyses that are portable yet contextualized. These macro-historical theories must be attentive to spatial and temporal variation in the social world. Claims of universalism are suspect. For the study of the Global South, in particular, CAS provides a path for aggregating and leveraging the wide range of observations and interpretations area specialists have to offer on regions as diverse as South Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, and sub-Saharan Africa. CAS thus changes the division of labor within social science to allow greater input for scholarship derived from and originating in the developing world.

Abstract Despite their different politics, populations and histories, there are some striking similarities between the indigenous assimilation policies enacted by the United States and Australia. These parallels reveal much about the harsh practicalities behind the rhetoric of humanitarian uplift, civilization and cultural assimilation that existed in these settler nations. This article compares legislation which provided assimilative pathways to Aborigines and Native Americans whom white officials perceived to be acculturated. Some Aboriginal people were offered certificates of “exemption” which freed them from the legal restrictions on Aboriginal people’s movement, place of abode, ability to purchase alcohol, and other controls. Similarly, Native Americans could be awarded a fee patent which declared them “competent.” This patent discontinued government guardianship over them and allowed them to sell, deed, and pay taxes on their lands. I scrutinize the Board that was sent to Oklahoma to examine the Cheyenne and Arapaho for competency in January and February 1917, and the New South Wales Aborigines’ Welfare Board, which combined the awarding of exemption certificates with their efforts to assimilate Koori people into Australian society in the 1940s and 1950s. These case studies reveal that people of mixed white/indigenous descent were more likely to be declared competent or exempt. Thus, hand in hand with efforts to culturally assimilate Aborigines and Native Americans came attempts to reduce the size of indigenous populations and their landholdings by releasing people of mixed descent from government control, and no longer officially recognizing their indigenous identity.

There's a popular meme that my archaeology friends have been circulating on social media lately: a picture of Giorgio Tsoukalos, a producer of the popular History Channel show Ancient Aliens, overlaid with the caption “I'm not saying it was aliens, but it was aliens.” The caption is a play on Tsoukalos's and others’ claims that the archaeological and historical record contains ample evidence for alien visits to earth in antiquity. To wit, past episodes of the show have suggested that Kachinas, Egyptian hieroglyphics, and indigenous rock art depict aliens; that much of the monumental art and architecture of ancient Mesoamerica, South America, Near East, Easter Island (of course), Malta, and elsewhere represents the genius of extraterrestrial visitors; that Mayan kings were not really people but alien overlords; that extraterrestrials were responsible for the demise of many civilizations—if not the dinosaurs, too—and so on.

In 1998, the Vanderbilt Cancuén Archaeological Project began its research at sites south of the department of Petén, central Guatemala. Rooted in the heart of the jungle lay the remains of a great civilization that had lived there more than one thousand years ago. Since the beginning of the project, three simultaneous lines of action were planned: archaeological research; restoration of the structures; and a sustainable human development program for the nearby communities. The Project's director, Arthur Demarest, thought the latter program crucial. After twenty years of experience in archaeological research in Central America in conditions of civil war, he found the right conditions to develop a project that was sensitive to raise the living standards of the villages around Cancuén. The Peace Treaty and truce accorded by the National Revolutionary Guatemalan Union (URNG) and the Guatemalan government in 1996 assured that the war would not interfere with local aid and community development. Previous Vanderbilt human development projects in the Petexbatun area to the north had been halted by army and guerrilla intrusions.

Los Morteros (8°39'54"S, 78°42 '00"W) is located in coastal, northern Peru, one of the six original centers of world civilization. The site consists of a large, sand-covered, isolated prominence situated on a Mid-Holocene shoreline, ∽5 km from the present coast. Preceramic archaeological deposits (4040±75 to 4656±60 14C yr BP or ∽3600–5500 cal yr BP) cap this feature, which has been identified by prior researchers as a sand-draped, bedrock-cored landform or a relict dune deposit. Because neither explanation is geomorphologically probable, we used ground-penetrating radar (GPR) and high-resolution mapping to assess the mound's interior structure. Our results indicate an anthropogenic origin for Los Morteros, potentially placing it among the earliest monumental structures in prehistoric South America. The extremely arid setting raises new questions about the purpose and the logistics of early mound construction in this region. This work demonstrates the value of an integrated Quaternary sciences approach to assess long-term landscape change and to understand the interaction between humans and the environment.

Western South America was one of the worldwide cradles of civilization. The well-known Inca Empire was the tip of the iceberg of an evolutionary process that started 11,000 to 14,000 years ago. Genetic data from 18 Peruvian populations reveal the following: 1) The between-population homogenization of the central southern Andes and its differentiation with respect to Amazonian populations of similar latitudes do not extend northward. Instead, longitudinal gene flow between the northern coast of Peru, Andes, and Amazonia accompanied cultural and socioeconomic interactions revealed by archeology. This pattern recapitulates the environmental and cultural differentiation between the fertile north, where altitudes are lower, and the arid south, where the Andes are higher, acting as a genetic barrier between the sharply different environments of the Andes and Amazonia. 2) The genetic homogenization between the populations of the arid Andes is not only due to migrations during the Inca Empire or the subsequent colonial period. It started at least during the earlier expansion of the Wari Empire (600 to 1,000 years before present). 3) This demographic history allowed for cases of positive natural selection in the high and arid Andes vs. the low Amazon tropical forest: in the Andes, a putative enhancer inHAND2-AS1(heart and neural crest derivatives expressed 2 antisense RNA1, a noncoding gene related to cardiovascular function) and rs269868-C/Ser1067 inDUOX2(dual oxidase 2, related to thyroid function and innate immunity) genes and, in the Amazon, the gene encoding for the CD45 protein, essential for antigen recognition by T and B lymphocytes in viral–host interaction.

There are many and different types of racism in contemporary Russia: institutional racism, far-right racism, everyday (bytovoi) racism, and a fourth kind to which this essay will be devoted, the racism of the liberal intelligentsia. Russian liberal media's reaction to the BLM protests of 2020 has offered abundant material for the study of its social base, main tropes, and underlying logic. This article attempts to historicize it, locating its origins in the anti-Soviet pro-western dissidence of the stagnation era and illustrating its workings through some statements made by Joseph Brodsky and his milieu. Furthermore, the article identifies the intersection of two main ideas from which this racism emerges. In the first place, this is Cold-War rejection of real or perceived Soviet alliances with newly decolonized countries of Africa and Asia or with African Americans during the Civil Rights era. In the second place, this is dissident civilizational hierarchies that placed the west at the top and saw the east or the south as a backward space best avoided.

The complex and colorful textiles of ancient Peru have long been a focus of technical study, particularly to characterize the sources of the wide variety of dyes utilized by these Andean artisans. This manuscript describes the characterization of the dyes of both primary (red, blue, and yellow) and secondary (purple, orange, and green) colors sampled from textiles spanning five major civilizations: the Paracas Necropolis, the Nazca, the Wari, the Chancay, and the Lambayeque, all from Peru. All but the Paracas Necropolis samples were part of technical conservation studies of the ancient South American textiles collections of the Michael C. Carlos Museum. Analysis of the dyes was carried out utilizing direct analysis in real time time-of-flight mass spectrometry (DART-MS) and paper spray MS. To validate these ambient ionization MS methods, the samples were further investigated using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with ultraviolet-visible diode array detection (DAD). These results show that ambient ionization MS methods are simple and fast for characterization of the general classes of dyes, e.g., plant reds vs. insect reds, and indigoids in blues and greens. Due to the myriad possible sources of yellow dyes and their tendency to undergo oxidative decomposition, positively identifying those components in these yarns was difficult, though some marker compounds and flavonoid decomposition products were readily identified by ambient ionization mass spectrometry.

Wounds are injuries that break the skin or other body tissues. They often happen because of an accident or surgery. They include cuts, scrapes, scratches, and punctured skin. Herbal extracts and essential oils have been used since ancient civilizations to treat wounds. Schinus molle L. (Anacardiaceae) is an aromatic tree originated from South America but now it is cultivated in Mediterranean area. The plant was used in folk medicine as a vulnarary. However there is no scientific evidence regarding its use in wound healing, therefore the aim of the present study was to evaluate the wound healing activity of fruit essential oil. Ointment containing 2, 10, and 15 % (w/w) essential oil and nanocapsules (2%) was formulated and their wound healing activity was investigated. Pharma-ceutical forms was topically applied on incision wound model that was created on lumbar region of rats and the wound length was measured daily until complete healing. Results of this study demonstrated that essential oil has wound healing effect; this effect varies depending on concentration. Treatment the wound with nanocapsules 2% or essential oil 10% showed the best activity compared to negative control. We concluded that formulated oil as nanocapsules is very effective in wound healing.

The article considers Max Weber’s model of plebiscitary leadership and historical examples of plebiscitary democracy. It is argued that there is no clear distinction between plebiscitary democracy and dictatorship inWeber’s writings. As Stefan Breuer demonstrates, such a distinction allows us to broaden the application of Weberian concepts. Plebiscitary elements can be seen in the political life of non-Western states, which have been discussed from the multiple modernities perspective. However, while that perspective develops the Weberian sociological tradition, its representatives mostly do not use the concept of plebiscitary leadership. Thus, Shmuel Eisenstadt draws primarily on Weber’s sociology of religion in his analysis of different types of modernity. Specifically, Eisenstadt considers the impact of civilizational legacies on political processes in India and Latin America. Peter Wagner discusses the relevance of Weber’s rationalization thesis and theory of capitalism rather than the concepts of Weberian political sociology. In his study of democratization in Brazil and South Africa, Wagner emphasizes the progressive character of political changes but does not consider the possibility of a reversal of these processes. The article argues that the contemporary reconstruction of Weber’s model of plebiscitary leadership can complement the analyses of democratization in non-Western societies from the multiple modernities perspective.

As exposições universais durante o século XIX eram denominadas “festas do progresso”, vitrines para apresentar o melhor de cada país. Essa busca por uma representação civilizada poderia ocorrer de várias formas quando se tratava dos países das américas do sul e central, no caso brasileiro o relatório da Exposição Universal de Londres (1862), escrito por Francisco Inácio de Carvalho Moreira, demonstra uma escolha por ressaltar a diversidade dos produtos provinciais. Indo ao encontro dessa exposição da diversidade, este artigo busca entender as formas regionais de representação das províncias do Pará e do Amazonas, cujos produtos eram notadamente objetos naturais, advindos do extrativismo, pela comissão brasileira; partindo de uma discussão sobre civilização e natureza na região da Amazônia.Palavras-chave: Região; Exposição; Amazônia; Londres; Natureza; Civilização. AbstractThe universal exhibitions during the nineteenth century were called "festivals of progress", showcases to present the best of each country. This search for a civilized representation could occur in many ways when it came to the countries of the South and Central America, in the Brazilian case the report of the Universal Exhibition of London (1862), written by Francisco Inácio de Carvalho Moreira, shows a choice to emphasize the diversity of provincial products. Going to this exhibition of diversity, the aim is to understand the representation regional forms of Pará and Amazonas provinces, whose products were notably natural objects, derived from extractivism by the Brazilian commission; starting from a discussion about civilization and nature in the Amazon region.Keywords: Region; Exhibition; Amazon; London; Nature; Civilization. ResumenLas exposiciones universales durante el siglo XIX eran llamadas “fiestas de progreso”, escaparates para presentar lo mejor de cada país. Esa búsqueda por una representación civilizada ocurrió de varias formas cuando se trataba de los países de América del Sur y Central. En el caso de Brasil el informe de la Exposición Universal de Londres (1862) escrito por Francisco Inácio de Carvalho Moreira, demuestra una acción por resaltar la diversidad de productos provinciales. Yendo al encuentro de esa exposición de la diversidad, este artículo busca entender las formas regionales de representación de las provincias de los Estados del Pará e del Amazonas escogidas por la comisión brasileña, cuyos productos seleccionados eran mayoritariamente naturales, producidos por la actividad extractiva; iniciando una discusión sobre civilización y naturaleza en la región de la Amazonia.Palabras clave: Región; Exposición Universal; Amazonia; Londres; Naturaleza; Civilización.

The American Cowicil for the study of Islamic Societies (ACSIS) held its18th Annual Conference April 27-28, 2001 at Villanova University,Pennsylvania. ACSIS was established in 1983 to bring together scholarsengaged in the study of Islamic Societies and states around the world fromreligious, cultural, economic and political perspectives. ACSIS also has astrong focus on Pakistan Studies. The program director, Dr. Hafeez Malikmust be congratulated for consistency with which ACSIS continues to meetand produce its publication The Journal of South Asian and Middle EasternStudies.In a small symposium with a total of seven panels and some 20 speakers(except the absentees), panel areas covered ranged from Turkey and theWest to Muslims in Tibet and China, while the subjects were as diverse asforeign policy, media studies and pluralism.The first panel began with the discussion of Turkey's role in the EuropeanUnion (EU). Augusta State University's Michael Bishku's presented"Destination European Union? The Politics and Economics of Turkey'sCase for Admission" The paper put the conference to a good start becausethe following two papers by James Sowerwine and John Vander Lippedealt with topic directly related to Turkey's admission into EuropeanUnion. Respectively, these papers were "The Role of Turkey in EuropeanSecurity" and "Turkish-American Relations".Bishku pointed out at the unevenness and asymmetrical relationship thatcharacterized the Turkey-EU relations. EU's integration itself is notentirely a democratic exercise but a product of European search forenduring security, a quasi-Utopian dream of European integrationideologues and a generation of technocratic elite who want Europe unified.Similarly, the earlier Turkish elite wanted to enter EU for the reasons ofchanging identity, economic or civilizational, whereas the society at thattime was still traditional and felt a deeper bond with the Muslim world thansecular Europe. However, the current Turkish drive for membership in EUcomes surprisingly not from the secular elite but the very Islamic sectors ofsociety; while the elite wants to hold on to the Kemalist power apparatus,the society wants to democratize and join the EU, because by doing so, thestate will no longer be able to pursue its Machiavellian tactics on itscitizens, as it would have to abide by, in substance, to the Human Rights ...

Introduction. Balneology has a long European and Asian tradition and Romania can be the cornerstone of international bridges in this area due to its geographical position, legendary tradition and extraordinary natural resources of all kind. The use of thermal and mineral springs on the territory of the country for health and treatment purposes is a tradition with a history of more than two thousand years. Unique spa resources, such as thermal and mineral springs, mud, mofettes, saline microclimate and bioclimate (sedative or relaxing, exciting of marine seaside or plains, stimulant or tonic), are used successfully in the sphere of health care services, preventive medical actions, rehabilitation and wellness. Legend of Hercule bathing in Cerna's waters is a proof of the use of thermal waters long before the Roman conquest. This tradition exists in almost all civilizations. Today it maintains its usefulness and is spread across all continents, mainly in the Middle East and South and East Europe, Asia (Middle East, Japan, China, Turkey), South America (Argentina, Mexico, Colombia) and North Africa (Morocco, Tunisia) (244-249). Material and method. This article is a sistematic and summarizing review of all published articles by Balneo Research Journal in its ten years of existence, from november 2010 until September 2019. All the ten volumes and more than 250 articles were analized in order to understand the main thematic of the articles, the more usefull scientific concepts, the realistic benefits of the published articles for the development of Balneology. Results and discussions. Analizing an article database of about 250 publised articles in Balneo Research Journal can be of real impact on the development of the field of Balneology but also can drive the future of the jurnal to better understand its implications in the scientific arena. Conclusions. Main scientific concepts with which Balneology is operating, interdisciplinary connections and interests were focused on ideas to have in mind by the authors and readers of this article. Key words: Balneology, Balneotherapy, Balneo Research Journal, Natural therapeutic factors, Balneary Resort,

The current article investigates the relation between values and modernization applying some elements of the method proposed by Inglehart and Welzel (the authors of the Human Development Sequence Theory) to the data of Shalom Schwartz. The values survey by Schwartz specifies two main value axes, namely, conservation versus openness to change and self-transcendence versus self-enhancement. Our research has revealed that the correlation between these two value axes differs in its direction when estimated for “macro-Europe” (that includes Europe and former settlement colonies of North and South America and Oceania) and “Afroasia” (that includes Asia and Africa). In “macro-Europe,” we deal with a significant positive correlation between openness to change and self-transcendence, whereas in “Afroasia,” this correlation is strong, significant, and negative. We investigate the possible impact of modernization on this difference. To do this, we approximate modernization through such indicators as gross domestic product (GDP) per capita and the proportions of the labor force employed in various sectors of economy. We find that, in both megazones, modernization is accompanied by increasing openness to change values. As for the self-transcendence/self-enhancement axis, we propose two possible explanations of the different dynamics observed in Europe and in “the East” (Asia and North Africa), namely, (a) that Eastern and Western societies find themselves at different modernization stages and (b) that this difference is accounted for by different civilizational patterns. Further analysis suggests that the latter explanation might be more plausible.

The Neolithic Revolution narrative associates early-mid Holocene domestications with the development of agriculture that fueled the rise of late Holocene civilizations. This narrative continues to be influential, even though it has been deconstructed by archaeologists and geneticists in its homeland. To further disentangle domestication from reliance on food production systems, such as agriculture, we revisit definitions of domestication and food production systems, review the late Pleistocene–early Holocene archaeobotanical record, and quantify the use, management and domestication of Neotropical plants to provide insights about the past. Neotropical plant domestication relies on common human behaviors (selection, accumulation and caring) within agroecological systems that focus on individual plants, rather than populations—as is typical of agriculture. The early archaeobotanical record includes numerous perennial and annual species, many of which later became domesticated. Some of this evidence identifies dispersal with probable cultivation, suggesting incipient domestication by 10,000 years ago. Since the Pleistocene, more than 6500, 1206 and 6261 native plant species have been used in Mesoamerica, the Central Andes and lowland South America, respectively. At least 1555, 428 and 742 are managed outside and inside food production systems, and at least 1148, 428 and 600 are cultivated, respectively, suggesting at least incipient domestication. Full native domesticates are more numerous in Mesoamerica (251) than the Andes (124) and the lowlands (45). This synthesis reveals that domestication is more common in the Neotropics than previously recognized and started much earlier than reliance on food production systems. Hundreds of ethnic groups had, and some still have, alternative strategies that do involve domestication, although they do not rely principally on food production systems, such as agriculture.

Recognition of regional features, outlining of the contours of regions, tendency to regionalize ethnic, economic, cultural and state-administrative space, and strengthening the ideology of regionalism in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, that is Serbia and Montenegro, appear as a practical and political but also as a theoretical problem which includes and combines several scientific disciplines. The phenomenon of regionalism is not contradictory although it is primarily expressed through the numerous conflicts of interests rivalry and antagonisms of political subjects. The problematic side of the phenomenon of regionalism includes the result of an extremely negative and existentially tragic experience of the several years-long disintegration of the complex Yugoslav state. During the partition and disintegration of the second Yugoslavia, there also happened the disintegration of the Serbian ethnic area Growth, support and instigation of regional tendencies occurred in the historical circumstances of secession and did not stop in the post-secession period. Particularization and segmentation of political area, as well as the disintegration of the former state, did not occur in accordance with the norms of internal and international law. Legality was late and was achieved within the transformation of power reflected in the changed territorial policy of the dominant alliance of great powers. The entire past decade was characterized by an extraordinary metamorphosis of political space. Secession trend had the territorial features which included the change of borders and had been long in the focus of the global geopolitical attention. Territories were divided and made smaller. Intensive territorial dynamics within the external silhouette of the de-stated SFR of Yugoslavia resulted in the creation of several state and quasi-state political formations. Former republics became semi-sovereign states. Dispersed and displaced Serbian ethnos was configured in the three territories: in the Republic of Serbia - from which Kosovo and Metohia were amputated and placed under the UN protectorate - in the entire Republic of Montenegro and in the Republic Srpska, located in one part of the former Bosnia and Herzegovina. Demopolitical result of the geopolitical destruction of the Serbian ethnos was a great movement of the Serbian population from the west to the east, and its concentration in the territory of the Republic of Serbia this implied that the Serbs were expelled from their millennia-long abodes in Croatia, parts of Bosnia and from Kosmet. The geo-economic result of the same process was the devastation of the national economic strength west of the Drina and in the southern province. Economic regression occurred also in the national parent-land state. Balkan re-arrangement of the spheres of interest in the post-bipolar period was in 1995. fixed by the interest arrangement of the great powers known under the name Dayton Peace Agreement. Redistribution of the territories from the destroyed state occurred in the post-communist period with the expansion of west-civilization structures to the European east Westernization of the eastern part of Europe, or entire Europe as the other pole of the global West, could be characterized as a dual mega-regionality. Namely, the west is composed of Europe and America; on the other side, there is the global East or its hybrid variation Eurasia. With the disappearance of their common state and its framework, south Slavs found themselves in the seemingly independent, and actually client states. Western delimitation of the south Slavic area moved from the Yugoslav borders towards a wider Balkan demarcation. One could say that the revitalized notion of the Balkans became a new, in many aspects obligatory framework for regional thinking. The Balkan macroregion is further determined by the intentions to expand the European Union. One of the Euro-centric concepts, which is being experimentally employed precisely in the Balkans, is the establishment of the so-called Europe of regions in the peripheral areas. On the other hand, even though the process of the disintegration of the Yugoslav Federation appears to be irreversible, the superordinate Euro-American factor does not give up the possibility of the mezzo-regional initiatives, cooperations, associations and integrations. This "middle" level of dealing with the specificities of the Yugoslav region is related to the states and nations from the former Yugoslavia, or the so-called West Balkans. Naturally, it is not the tendency to revive the silhouette of the previous state, but certainly there is a noticeable intention to achieve a regional linking of the related, now semi-sovereign territories which sometimes belonged to the same state framework. The fourth level deals with microregionalism, that is the relation between the different areas in the newly-created states. It is interesting that the regionalist discourse is mostly cherished exactly in the ethno-heterogeneous Serbian area, although other Yugoslav states also have or had regional tradition and mixed population, like, for example, Slovenia and Croatia Nevertheless, these former Yugo-republics are structured as mono-national states, so the regional policy and ideology of regionalism are still not in the first plane. Regionalism within the newly-formed states could be supplemented with the micron level implying specific sub-regionalism of the highest degree, within the larger regions in the same state. This could be illustrated with Backa, Banat and Srem inside Vojvodina, understood as the northern Serbian region, or Kosovo and Metohia in the south of Serbia, in the province with the same name. In the part of Serbia outside the provinces, similar things could be said for Belgrade with its surroundings, Macva, Podrinje, Sumadija, Raska District etc. Thus, when it comes to the present FR of Yugoslavia, all five levels of regional dynamics have a principled, but insufficiently studied significance. Mega-regional level is related to the mark denoting the global belonging to the West. Macroregional level deals with the European loyalty, that is inclusion of the FR of Yugoslavia into the continental European trends. This trans-continental and continental direction of inclusion implies a historical teleology of the relative eastern belonging to the absolute West, that is Euro-America, and the entrance into the full structure of the European Union. All the mentioned problems of recognition and characterization of the regional phenomenology in the political topography of the world are motivated by the tendency to achieve as clear as possible spatial-temporal national and state orientation The direction is related to the so-called safety dilemma of the nation and the country faced with the change of size and essence of one's own state, with the different geopolitical position and redefined foreign-policy priorities. It is also the case of the changed alliance policy, and the innovated strategy of integration into the old and new global and regional political structures. On the basis of the indicated components of geopolitical context, one could say that the phenomenon of regions and their cognate correlates {regionally regionalization and regionalism) should not be understood exclusively through the legal categories of international law and the so-called constitutional solutions, that is administrative division of the state territory. Actually in the analysis of regions and regionalism in Serbia and the FR of Yugoslavia it is necessary first to discuss the pre-normative or meta-le-gal factors in the creation of the regional issue within the national and state issue, which have the form of the unsolved political problem. Meta-legality is located within the domain of the international relations and geopolitic. Meta-legal or pre-normative factors of the formation or recognition of regions and regionalisms deal with the possibility of the political constitution of the Serbian, that is Serbian / Montenegrin (still Yugoslav) society. Since the unique state area was destroyed in the four-year secession wars and there occurred significant demopolitical changes, war migrations, forceful displacements and expulsion of the population - the ethnic character of many areas was also drastically changed. At the same time, the post-secession existence of the FR of Yugoslavia could be also viewed through the optics of the state residuum. The remaining Serbia or Serbia (temporarily) without Kosovo is certainly not an equivalent for the Serbian ethnic space, nor for the entire Serbian lands. It is not even the FR of Yugoslavia, as a dual con federation of the Serbian / Montenegrin nation. Geopolitical reduction of the SFR of Yugoslavia to a residual creation of the FR of Yugoslavia was not deduced from the legality sui generis, but resulted from a conflict, the defeat of integralism and the victory of separatism, as well as from a new triumphal configuration of power. The impulse implying the statism of the collective rights from the former complex federal necessarily-multinational level was transferred to a lower mononational level. Therefore, the regionalist ideology in the post-secession reality of the residual state almost inevitably, as a tendency, nears the separatory particularism. Even the lost national state and the state entirety are openly denied within the requests for the territorization of the collective rights of various minorities. Naturally these requests do not carry the primary features of the development of democracy. On the contrary, in the majority of cases this implies the rise of parish and tribal consciousness prone to narrow-minded separation. Thus the post-secession requests for the regionalization are often just a slight rhetorical mask for real separatism. For example, they are expressed through the pseudo-national separation of Vojvodina from Serbia, as well as Montenegro from Serbia, or through the establishment of state-like entities in the territorial tissue of Serbia Alleged arguments are found in the unfinished disintegration of the SFR of Yugoslavia on the one hand, and in the prevention of the creation of the so-called Greater Serbia, even within the diminished Serbia That way, even in the post-secession, reduced Serbia one could easily recognize the tendencies of federalization and confederalization, even the amputation of its remaining state space. Additional arguments for the crawling secession and prolonged territorial destruction are found in the ideology of globalization and world trends of relativizing territorial integrity and state sovereignty. On the other hand, the idea about the principled insignificance of borders in Europe without borders, as well as Europe of regions, is emphasized. Thus, it is obvious that the new state and regional delimitations and demarcations are in contradiction with the vision of the trans-statal and trans-national integrity of the European continent. In Serbia itself, me problem of the restructuring of regions is determined by the inherited and unchanged triple division of its territory into the central part and two autonomous provinces in the north and south. Thus every idea for regionalization (expert, party, leader's, NGO and the like) faces the inherited, too narrow constitutional framework and easily slides to the federalization or confederalization of the Republic, and in extreme cases to the independence and sovereignty of ethnic, religious, linguistic and other minorities. Roughly put, the tendencies for territorial separation from the Republic of Serbia still exist in several neuralgic and unstable areas or regions. In Vojvodina, the presented tendencies have the character of a meaningless internal - Serbian autonomy, autonomism, latent separatism. Authentic Serbian autonomy lost its original character long ago and deteriorated into an internal national re-statism. On the other hand, in the furthest south of Serbia, in Kosmet, the UN protectorate is established, but the region is actually occupied and thus the status of the Province is "frozen". In the three municipalities in the south of Serbia, with the relative Albanian majority, Albanian separatism smolders within the platform of the so-called east Kosovo. In the Raska region (Sandzak) there are also strong tendencies for separateness on the religious-ecclesiastical, so-called Bosniac platform, with religious solidarity, and ethnic and territorial unity of all Bosniacs. In the meta-legal or pre-normative situation - which most often denotes political and geopolitical context implying interests, power and force - the inclinations for territorial design are faced with the conflicting ideology of regionalism. Therefore, the constitutional-legal solutions of the former, present and future regions, generated within the self-created legality which does not respect meta-legal, political and geopolitical impulses regardless of how aestheticized and "humanized" they may be - at the end face the practical impossibility of realization.

-Sidney W. Mintz, Paget Henry ,C.L.R. James' Caribbean. Durham: Duke University Press, 1992. xvi + 287 pp., Paul Buhle (eds)-Allison Blakely, Jan M. van der Linde, Over Noach met zijn zonen: De Cham-ideologie en de leugens tegen Cham tot vandaag. Utrecht: Interuniversitair Instituut voor Missiologie en Oecumenica, 1993. 160 pp.-Helen I. Safa, Edna Acosta-Belén ,Researching women in Latin America and the Caribbean. Boulder CO: Westview, 1993. x + 201 pp., Christine E. Bose (eds)-Helen I. Safa, Janet H. Momsen, Women & change in the Caribbean: A Pan-Caribbean Perspective. Bloomington: Indiana University Press; Kingston: Ian Randle, 1993. x + 308 pp.-Paget Henry, Janet Higbie, Eugenia: The Caribbean's Iron Lady. London: Macmillan, 1993. 298 pp.-Kathleen E. McLuskie, Moira Ferguson, Subject to others: British women writers and Colonial Slavery 1670-1834. New York: Routledge, 1992. xii + 465 pp.-Samuel Martínez, Senaida Jansen ,Género, trabajo y etnia en los bateyes dominicanos. Santo Domingo: Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo, Programa de Estudios se la Mujer, 1991. 195 pp., Cecilia Millán (eds)-Michiel Baud, Roberto Cassá, Movimiento obrero y lucha socialista en la República Dominicana (desde los orígenes hasta 1960). Santo Domingo: Fundación Cultural Dominicana, 1990. 620 pp.-Paul Farmer, Robert Lawless, Haiti's Bad Press. Rochester VT: Schenkman Press, 1992. xxvii + 261 pp.-Bill Maurer, Karen Fog Olwig, Global culture, Island identity: Continuity and change in the Afro-Caribbean Community of Nevis. Chur, Switzerland: Harwood Academic Publishers, 1993. xi + 239 pp.-Viranjini Munasinghe, Kevin A. Yelvington, Trinidad Ethnicity. Knoxville: University of Tennesee Press, 1993. vii + 296 pp.-Kevin K. Birth, Christine Ho, Salt-water Trinnies: Afro-Trinidadian Immigrant Networks and Non-Assimilation in Los Angeles. New York: AMS Press, 1991. xvi + 237 pp.-Steven Gregory, Andrés Isidoro Pérez y Mena, Speaking with the dead: Development of Afro-Latin Religion among Puerto Ricans in the United States. A study into the Interpenetration of civilizations in the New World. New York: AMS Press, 1991. xvi + 273 pp.-Frank Jan van Dijk, Mihlawhdh Faristzaddi, Itations of Jamaica and I Rastafari (The Second Itation, the Revelation). Miami: Judah Anbesa Ihntahnah-shinahl, 1991.-Derwin S. Munroe, Nelson W. Keith ,The Social Origins of Democratic Socialism in Jamaica. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1992. xxiv + 320 pp., Novella Z. Keith (eds)-Virginia Heyer Young, Errol Miller, Education for all: Caribbean Perspectives and Imperatives. Washington DC: Inter-American Development Bank, 1992. 267 pp.-Virginia R. Dominguez, Günter Böhm, Los sefardíes en los dominios holandeses de América del Sur y del Caribe, 1630-1750. Frankfurt: Vervuert, 1992. 243 pp.-Virginia R. Dominguez, Robert M. Levine, Tropical diaspora: The Jewish Experience in Cuba. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1993. xvii + 398 pp.-Aline Helg, John L. Offner, An unwanted war: The diplomacy of the United States and Spain over Cuba, 1895-1898. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1992. xii + 306 pp.-David J. Carroll, Eliana Cardoso ,Cuba after Communism. Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 1992. xiii + 148 pp., Ann Helwege (eds)-Antoni Kapcia, Ian Isadore Smart, Nicolás Guillén: Popular Poet of the Caribbean. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1990. 187 pp.-Sue N. Greene, Moira Ferguson, The Hart Sisters: Early African Caribbean Writers, Evangelicals, and Radicals. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1993. xi + 214 pp.-Michael Craton, James A. Lewis, The final campaign of the American revolution: Rise and fall of the Spanish Bahamas. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1991. xi + 149 pp.-David Geggus, Clarence J. Munford, The black ordeal of slavery and slave trading in the French West Indies, 1625-1715. Lewiston NY: The Edwin Mellen Press, 1991. 3 vols. xxii + 1054 pp.-Paul E. Sigmund, Timothy P. Wickham-Crowley, Guerillas and Revolution in Latin America: A comparative Study of Insurgents and Regimes since 1956. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992. xx + 424 pp.-Robert E. Millette, Patrick A.M. Emmanuel, Elections and Party Systems in the Commonwealth Caribbean, 1944-1991. St. Michael, Barbados: Caribbean Development Research Services, 1992. viii + 111 pp.-Robert E. Millette, Donald C. Peters, The Democratic System in the Eastern Caribbean. Westport CT: Greenwood Press, 1992. xiv + 242 pp.-Pedro A. Cabán, Arnold H. Liebowitz, Defining status: A comprehensive analysis of United States Territorial Relations. Boston & Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff, 1989. xxii + 757 pp.-John O. Stewart, Stuart H. Surlin ,Mass media and the Caribbean. New York: Gordon & Breach, 1990. xviii + 471 pp., Walter C. Soderlund (eds)-William J. Meltzer, Antonio V. Menéndez Alarcón, Power and television in Latin America: The Dominican Case. Westport CT: Praeger, 1992. 199 pp.

A large proportion of natural vegetation has been converted to agricultural use, and this typically accelerates erosion by one to two orders of magnitude. Quantification of this accelerated erosion is important to understand the impact of human activities on soil ecosystem service given that soil erosion induces soil degradation and changes in soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks. Until now, few studies have evaluated the accumulated impact of agricultural erosion, since the start of agriculture (ca. 6000 BC), on the soils system and the carbon cycle. In this study, we mainly focused on the enhanced water erosion by conversion of natural vegetation to crops, while wind erosion on the cropland is not assessed. We first evaluated and constrained existing anthropogenic land cover change (ALCC) scenarios by comparing observed cumulative erosion for the agricultural period under a wide range of global agro-ecological conditions with model simulations. An optimized land-use scenario that makes the best fit between the simulation and the observation was derived in the model calibration. We further applied a spatially distributed erosion model, which was modified based on Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE), under the optimized land-use scenario across globe to estimate the total anthropogenic cumulative erosion and characterize their spatial variability. Simulations suggest that conversion from natural vegetation to cropland has caused a global cumulative agricultural erosion of 27,187 ± 9030 Pg for the period of agriculture. This results in an average cumulative sediment mobilization of 1829 ± 613 kg m−2 on croplands, corresponding to a soil truncation of ca. 1.34 ± 0.45 m. Regions of early civilization, particularly with high cropland fractions such as South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Central America have higher area-averaged anthropogenic erosion than other regions. This results in spatial variability in soil truncation rates because of erosion, which would further affect the soil production rate. Our study shows that observations of long-term anthropogenic erosion at the catchment scale can be used to constrain the reconstructed land-use scenarios.

For more than a century, archaeologists have frequently been drawn to understand the human past in broadly evolutionary terms, applying Darwinian thinking to the development of human societies. The unilinear models of human development that often result typically regard the state as the culmination of human progress, the end-point of a journey through intervening stages of bands, tribes and chiefdoms. Neo-evolutionary thinking was especially prevalent from the 1940s onwards, in the work of Julian Steward and others writing on the origins of the state. In the volume reviewed, Norman Yoffee challenges the former dominance of the neo-evolutionary approach, arguing that over the past half century it has stifled rather than stimulated our understanding of early state development.Yoffee contests the idea that states develop through a series of programmatic stages from less complex kinds of society. Instead, he stresses the diversity of the archaic state, drawing heavily on his specialist knowledge (drawn from texts as well as archaeology) of early Mesopotamia. Here we see city-state societies in which heterarchies play a role alongside hierarchies, and in which the varieties of lived experience varied considerably from place to place, even though all may at some level be considered to have been part of a shared Mesopotamian civilization.Yoffee's book is not, however, concerned solely with Mesopotamia; far from it, he draws comparative evidence from Egypt, South and East Asia and Central and South America to demonstrate the diversity and fluidity of the entities he is describing. Few of them conform to models that might be drawn from ethnography, and each state may in many ways be considered unique. Yet in a broader perspective, all states arise through a widespread pattern of change that has taken place in human society since the end of the Pleistocene in which individuals and groups have competed for control of resources.Yoffee concludes that ‘The central myth about the study of the earliest states ... is that there was something that could be called the archaic state, and that all of the earliest states were simply variations on this model’. The methodological alternative is to consider each society (of whatever type) as individual and unique, and constantly in a state of flux. In this review feature we invite a series of archaeologists specializing in the study of early states to address this and other issues raised by this important book. We begin, however, with an opening statement from the author himself.