PRIVATIZATION AND TRANSITION ISSUES IN RUSSIAN AGRICULTURE

Agricultural and Food Policy,

The Victorian Naturalist

v.112 (1995

From the Judaean Desert to the Great Sea : Qumran in a Mediterranean context

The time when Qumran was studied in splendid isolation is long gone, but much work remains to be done when it comes to situating the site in its wider context. In this paper, Qumran is contextualized, on the one hand, within the larger ecological history of the Mediterranean and, on the other, within the Mediterranean world of classical antiq- uity. Questions regarding the functions of the Qumran settlement are addressed from the perspective of “marginal zones” in the Mediterranean, which provides an ideal backdrop through which to illumine aspects of daily life at Qumran. Furthermore, it is shown how comparative case studies from the Graeco-Roman Mediterranean help us to nuance the discussion concerning “Hellenization” or “Romanization” with regard to Qumran. Finally, a new understanding of L4, which is here interpreted primarily as a dining room, is proposed on the basis of archaeological parallels from the Graeco-Roman world. A pan-Mediterranean perspective, therefore, allows us to generate new insights on old questions and novel interpretations.peer-reviewe

New Elemental VIstas

In recent decades, physics and chemistry have been active in contributing new words and names to the English word-stock - a fact for which logologists are duly thankful: the more words there are for them to use, the more they can accomplish. Playing only a very minor role in the overall picture have been new names for chemical elements, since progress in discovering or creating additional elements is excruciatingly slow. For quite a number of years, the number of elements with firmly established names has stood at 103, the elements involved spanning the range from HYDROGEN (element 1) to LAWRENCIUM (element 103)

First record of the Common Wolfsnake, Lycodon capucinus (H. Boie in F. Boie 1827), from New Guinea, with comments on its widespread distribution and confused taxonomy, and a new record for the Common Sun Skink, Eutropis multifasciata (Kuhl 1820)

We report the first records of the Island Wolfsnake, Lycodon capucinus (H. Boie in F. Boie 1827) at Timika, Mimika Regency, Papua Province, Indonesian New Guinea. These are of considerable interest since they provide further proof for the ability of this species to disperse via human transport, and the expansion into New Guinea represents a significant milestone, a distance of 675 km (by air) from the closest known population on Seram Island in the Moluccan Archipelago. Of even broader interest is the fact that one of the specimens contained a prey item, a Common Sun Skink, Eutropis multifasciata (Kuhl 1820), in itself a significant territorial expansion for that species. We preface our reports with a comprehensive review of the available information on the Island Wolfsnake’s taxonomy and distribution. We also discuss the expansion of E. multifasciata across Wallacea and into New Guinea

The Social and Political Life of a Relic: The Episode of the \u3ci\u3eMoi-e-Muqaddas\u3c/i\u3e Theft in Kashmir, 1963-1964

The present article is focused on the relationship between a sacred object: the moi-e-muqaddas (the Prophet’s hair), housed in the Hazratbal shrine in Kashmir, and the Kashmiri Muslim community. The relic, which was stolen from the shrine on 27 December 1963, lead to a massive protest in the Kashmir valley and in other parts of the subcontinent, as people demanded its immediate recovery. Such thefts, which have been reported from across the world and across centuries, point to the extreme value of the relics, and the additional value they generate when they are stolen. Similarly, the Hazratbal relic theft became a vehicle for reifying certain Kashmiri Muslim social and political sentiments. The incident also catapulted the issue of Kashmir’s political accession, which emerged in 1947 at the time of the partition of the subcontinent, to the forefront, alarming the Indian government. The Hazratbal relic episode is also reflective of the role of religious ideas and symbols in political action in South Asia

Experiments on Visual Acuity and the Visibility of Markings on the Ground in Long-duration Earth-Orbital Space Flight

Visual acuity and visibility of markings on ground in long duration earth orbital space fligh