Human Rights and Indigenous Peoples

The paper begins by noting the low level of reference to Indigenous Australians in the Commonwealth Constitution at the start of Federation, and goes on to discuss the limits to what was achieved by the 1967 amendments. The situation represents a marked contrast with the USA and Canada in terms of treaties and constitutional recognition. In Australia, particularly during the period of the ‘Reconciliation’ process in the 1990s, important steps were taken by Indigenous Australians to identify items of ‘unfinished business’ in a ‘Statement of Indigenous Rights’. But there has been limited progress to meet these aspirations. And Australian law still lacks a tradition of recognition of human rights generally, let alone Indigenous rights. International law, too, largely lacked recognition of human rights, generally prior to the adoption in 1945 of the Charter of the United Nations. The brief references in the Charter were subsequently developed in a range of declarations and of treaties. These applied to people generally, with scant reference to Indigenous peoples. But, since the 1970s, there has been growing international recognition of the rights of Indigenous peoples under existing declarations and treaties. Since the 1990s, in particular, the UN system has established specific mechanisms for addressing such issues. On 13 September 2007, the General Assembly finally adopted a Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

Final arrangements following death: Maori indigenous decision making and tangi

Death is a universal event. It will happen to all of us, yet how we respond to death is particular and influenced by our cultural worlds. This study offers an investigation of the idiographic, of how one woman responded to, and made arrangements to, mourn and bury her mother. Specifically, we explore how she and her whanau (family) under pressure of time and grief and in the absence of clear final wishes, met to consider issues and make decisions about the situation they were confronted with. This case forms part of a much larger programme of research into Maori death rituals, change and adaption. Informing a scholarly audience unfamiliar with the Maori world requires a significant amount of contextual information. The case study is a powerful strategy to achieve this and one that draws readers into deep understanding (Willig, 2008). This case provides insight into the struggles of an indigenous fourth-world people living within the heterogeneity of Aotearoa/New Zealand society; it demonstrates how values change across generations as people live their lives increasingly away from their ancestral homelands; and how traditionally defined roles and responsibilities within the whanau (family) are challenged by members living away from each other

A new derivation shows Schubert learning thematic work from a Beethoven sonata

A newly discovered derivation of Schubert from Beethoven is presented: the piano sonata in B major D.575 IV from the piano sonata in A-flat major Op.26 II. A method for finding thematic derivations is first outlined. The present derivation shows Schubert learning to compose thematic material by following Beethoven’s example. The article increases our knowledge of Schubert after his early mastery of vocal composition, as he earnestly worked to learn the piano solo side of his craft. He needed to master three main areas:  logical manipulation of abstract musical material rather than text-based expression, sonata-allegro and related forms rather than song forms, and writing for the physical technique of solo piano performance rather than for voice with piano accompaniment. He had apparently received little or no training in those areas, and it is very instructive to see him making his own way

How Musical Rhythm Reveals Human Attitudes

What is the broadest significance of musical rhythm? Human attitudes to the world are reflected in it, according to Gustav Becking. Writing in the 1920s, Becking proposed a novel method of finding systematic differences of attitude between individual composers, between nations, and between historical time periods. He dealt throughout with Western classical music, from the period approximately 1600-1900. His method was to observe in fine detail the pattern of motion and pressure traced out by a small baton allowed to move in sympathy with a given musical excerpt. The various patterns arising for individual composers were represented graphically, and in that form became known as «Becking curves». Implications were touched upon in psychology, sociology and philosophy. His thesis is now published in English translation from the original German for the first time, with many annotations

The seasonal adjustment of economic data by spectral methods

i, 108 l., : illusThe object of this thesis is to present a formal theory for the seasonal adjustment of a single series in terms of spectral analysis, that is, the analysis of frequency components, together with a practical illustration. Instead of describing the well-know classical procedures we refer the reader to two quite sophisticated examples, the work of the Bank Deutscher Lander (1957) and Shiskin and Eisenpress (1957). It will appear that the spectral method is more powerful for description and analysis than are the classical methods, since it decomposes variables into their fundamental component parts; the estimation of variances and tests of significance are thus greatly facilitated. (First paragraph of 1.2

How world views may be revealed by armchair conducting : composer-specific computer animations

People sensitive to music may experience, whether consciously or not, a pulse-like sensation that runs throughout it. With classical music such a sensation is normally retained internally, but it can be rendered externally as a repeated motion sometimes called armchair conducting. The musicologist G. Becking (1928) proposed that such motions have a composer-specific shape and embody the composer’s world view. Becking represented the motions as curves drawn on paper. The present work provides computer animations of those curves, aiming to advance the study and understanding of them and thus of the composers’ musical personalities. Brief score excerpts intended to be typical were chosen from Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert, as well as suitable recordings. A point is shown as moving on the computer screen following the shape of the given Becking curve with a suitable velocity pattern, synchronised with the recorded sound. The point size varies with the strength exerted. The results of these animation attempts seem acceptable, provided they are understood not just as artificial constructs but in relation to genuine responses to the music