Ashes of Our Fathers: Racist Monuments and the Tribal Right

[Updated 2/23/21: complete chapter scan] In this chapter I sketch a rightist approach to monumentary policy in a diverse polity beleaguered by old ethnic grievances. I begin by noting the importance of tribalism, memorialization, and social trust. I then suggest a policy which 1) gradually narrows the gap between peoples in the heritage landscape, 2) conserves all but the most offensive of the least beloved racist monuments, 3) avoids recrimination (i.e., “keeps it positive”) and eschews ideological commentary in new monuments or revisions to old ones, 4) as much as politically feasible, recognizes only the offense of willing tribemates, and 5) responds to aesthetic and other “irrational” offenses more than to “objective” historical or philosophical critiques

Parks for All: Building a More Inclusive System of Parks and Public Lands for the National Park Service's Centennial

In the 100th year of the National Park Service, or NPS, America's parks and public lands are more popular than ever. Visits to national parks have reached record-breaking levels, with more than 307 million visitors in 2015. That number is expected to grow substantially this year, as NPS puts its centennial celebration at the forefront of an aggressive advertising and outreach campaign. But the national parks are not alone—nearly all public lands, including national forests and lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management—have also seen their visitation numbers reach new highs in recent years.Parks and public lands are also incredibly popular even among those who do not visit regularly. A poll conducted in January 2016 by Hart Research Associates for the Center for American Progress found that 77 percent of Americans believe that the United States benefits a great deal or fair amount from national parks. This number is consistent regardless of political affiliation. Furthermore, 55 percent of voters believe they personally benefit a great deal or fair amount from the country's parks and public lands. These levels of public support for a federal government program are remarkable at a time when only 19 percent of Americans say they trust the government.With U.S. demographics rapidly changing, it is more important than ever to develop and advance a forward-thinking and inclusive centennial policy agenda for the nation's public lands. The viability and relevance of America's national parks depend on the ability to connect more Americans to their public lands. Land management agencies have not kept pace in reflecting America's diverse population or in engaging new generations to visit and explore the historic, cultural, and environmental resources available through public lands. The parks need the buy-in of all Americans to continue to grow and stay relevant

The Ethics of Racist Monuments

In this chapter we focus on the debate over publicly-maintained racist monuments as it manifests in the mid-2010s Anglosphere, primarily in the US (chiefly regarding the over 700 monuments devoted to the Confederacy), but to some degree also in Britain and Commonwealth countries, especially South Africa (chiefly regarding monuments devoted to figures and events associated with colonialism and apartheid). After pointing to some representative examples of racist monuments, we discuss ways a monument can be thought racist, and neutrally categorize removalist and preservationist arguments heard in the monument debate. We suggest that both extremist and moderate removalist goals are likely to be self-defeating, and that when concerns of civic sustainability are put on moral par with those of fairness and justice, something like a Mandela-era preservationist policy is best: one which removes the most offensive of the minor racist monuments, but which focuses on closing the monumentary gap between peoples and reframing existing racist monuments

The ecological basis of fishery yield of the Puerto Rico-Virgin Islands Insular Shelf: 1987 Assessment

A literature review was conducted to locate information on the flow of energy from primary producers to the fishery stocks of the Puerto Rican-Virgin Islands insular shelf. This report uses site-specific information to describe the major ecological subsystems, or habitats, of the region, to identify the more common species and the subsystems in which they occur, to quantify productivity and biomass, and to outline trophic relationships. Discussions on each topic and subsystem vary in substance and detail, being limited by the availability and accessibility of information. (PDF contains 189 pages) Seven distinct subsystems are described: mangrove estuary, seagrass bed, coral reef, algal plain, sand/mud bottom, shelf break, and overlying pelagic. Over 50 tables provide lists of species found in each habitat on various surveys dating back to 1956. Estimates of density, relative abundance, and productivity are provided when possible. We evaluated whether sufficient information exists to support an analysis of the energy basis of fishery production in the area, beginning with the design and development of an ecosystem model. Data needs in three categories - species lists, biomass, and trophic relations - were examined for each subsystem and for each of three species groups - primary producers, invertebrates, and fish. We concluded that adequate data, sufficient for modeling purposes, are available in 16 (25%) of 64 categories; limited data, those requiring greater extrapolation, are available in 35 (55%) categories; and no data are available in 13 (20%) categories. The best-studied subsystems are seagrass beds and coral reefs, with at least limited data in all categories. Invertebrates, the intermediate link in the food web between primary producers and fishes, are the least quantified group in the region. Primary production and fishes, however, are relatively well-studied, providing sufficient data to support an ecosystem-level analysis and to initiate a modeling effort

Warriors, heroes and companions: negotiating masculinity in Viking-Age England

Detailed analysis of the construction of gender identities has transformed our understanding of many aspects of early medieval society, yet the study of the Vikings in Britain has largely remained immune to this branch of scholarship. In responding to this lacuna, this paper examines the gendered dimension of the funerary record of the Scandinavians in England in the ninth and tenth centuries, and suggests that the emphasis on masculine display, in both the burial and the sculptural record, is not merely a quirk of survival, but rather it has much to reveal about the negotiation of lordship in the context of conquest and settlement

Using Metacognition In Learning Mathematics Toward Character Building

The Ministry of National Education (Kemdiknas) plans to implement character education. Mathematics is one subject that has a big influence in preparing the students to be able to think logically, analytically, systematically, critically, and creatively, and have the ability to cooperate, allowing to be given values to build students character. Metacognition is the awareness of cognitive processes. By using metacognition, someone does all the activities with full awareness. When learning mathematics by involving his metacognition, he will be able to observe the relationship between data in the problem with the prior knowledge, to re-examine its accuracy, aswell as solving a complex problem with the simple steps, and asks himself and tries to clarify his opinion. This paper aims to develop learning Mathematics materials that consist of values and involve students metacognition to form a competent human resources and human character, discipline, honest, who perform all acts by full awareness. always make good planning, monitoring and evaluating their action. Keyword: character, values, metacognitio

Kristapurāṇa: Reshaping Divine Space

If a place is simply a physical location, the word space can be used for something shaped by mental processes. Physical places influence our lives by putting limits to the physically practicable, whereas spaces exercise their influence through mental processes like shaping our beliefs, values and sentiments. A space may be a mental superstructure based on an actual place, but, since its power is mental, it is not necessary that this place physically exists. One such space, with power to affect the lives of human beings, is heaven. Belief in heaven has had and still has great impact on many people’s thinking and acting. Heaven can be regarded as a part of a more general conceptual space inhabited by (ideas of) the divine and/or spiritual. I will refer to this as divine space

Taxonomy Of Thermopsis (Fabaceae) In North-America

Comprehensive reevaluation of both herbarium specimens and field observations of the North American Thermopsis leads to our recognition of 10 species. Three species occur in the southern Appalachians: T. villosa, T. mollis, and T. fraxinifolia. The Rocky Mountains and intermountain regions are populated by the relatively variable and widespread species T. divaricarpa, T. montana, and T. rhombifolia. The Pacific coastal mountains of California are dominated by the variable T. californica (with three infraspecific taxa), which gives way to T. gracilis in northern California and western Oregon. Thermopsis macrophylla and T. robusta have restricted ranges in California.Integrative Biolog

The Temporal and Spatial Distribution of Catlinite and Redstone Pipes on Caddo Sites

Catlinite and redstone pipes are widely distributed on post-A.D 1450 native American sites across eastern North America, including the Caddo area of the far Southeast. As Rodning indicates, however, catlinite pipes are much more widespread from the late seventeenth century to the early eighteenth century, where the smoking of catlinite pipes is associated with calumet ceremonialism, and the spread of calumet ceremonialism associated with the “spread of European colonists and colonialism.” In this article, I discuss the temporal and spatial distribution of catlinite and redstone pipes on Caddo sites across the northern and southern Caddo areas. These pipes occur in both pre- and post-European contexts in Caddo sites, and take several forms (disk and elbow pipes), but their widest distribution is on sites that date from ca. A.D. 1690-1780 on Caddo sites in East Texas. Catlinite and redstone pipes are made from argillite found in sources in the Great Plains and the upper Midwest, most notably at Pipestone National Monument in southwestern Minnesota. According to Rodning, the French “colonists are known to have imported argillite and perhaps catlinite from the Midwest or Plains… for the purpose of making calumet pipes to give as gifts to native American groups with whom the French sought alliances.