Place and space in early Burma: a new look at ‘Pyu Culture'

Ancient Burma (Myanmar) is commonly split into Upper Burma ‘Pyu’ and Lower Burma Mon cultures, an ethnic classification of walled site cultures in the Irrawaddy (Ayeyarwaddy) basin that began with fourth to ninth century C.E. scripts. The early Buddhist archaeology, however, points to multiple groups and spreads far beyond the Irrawaddy drainage system. The Mon typology has profitably been unravelled in Aung-Thwin’s controversial study (2005), but, while his advocacy of the Pyu primacy has been questioned, rudimentary definitions of the first millennium C.E. ‘Pyu culture’ have remained largely unchallenged. The blinkered results of text primacy in defining ethnicity and cultural identity are addressed here, with data from recent discoveries used to identify a relational engagement between the brick walls and terracotta urns typical of early Buddhist cultures in Upper Burma. This localised integration of spatial and spiritual factors is further strengthened by a range of artefacts and indigenous texts

Dawei Buddhist culture: a hybrid borderland

Dawei is both hybrid and borderland, its Buddhist culture a stylistic and territorial puzzle. Far from the ‘heartland’ yet passed from one major polity to another over the centuries, its pagodas and monasteries provided a physical and aesthetic means to asserted distance and accommodate ‘other’. Some objects and ideas were imported; others grafted the new onto local forms to produce hybrid styles, while others are uniquely local. Is Dawei culture similarity or a new unification of the cultural diversity of Pyu, Bagan, Sri Lanka, Sukhothai and Ayutthaya? This report argues the contrary, that Dawei resilience in the face of continual threats sustained a local cultural personality that has survived until the present. The question is addressed by first classifying the sites of Dawei into four cultural zones and then discussing the extraordinary range of artefacts from these zones by material. This is preceded by a chronological summary to illustrate the often turbulent history and local chronicles

Pagoda Desecration and Myanmar Archaeology, 1853–86

Examination of the British occupation of the Shwedagon pagoda in 1853 CE in the context of the formation of the Epigraphic Office from which today's Department of Archaeology, Ministry of Culture has emerged

The United Methodist Church at 40: What Can We Hope For?

The necessity we face for the future of Methodism is the re-invention of traditions. To re-invent traditions is to re-visit the past with all of its richness; to discern what in our tradition is most central to Christian faith; to analyze those parts of our past that continue to give life; to discern and build upon what is of value in the newly emerging tradition; and to reflect on those aspects of the neglected and rejected past that challenge our present perspectives and practices. To re-invent traditions is to develop new perspectives and practices from the building blocks of the past and from the fresh movements of the Spirit in the present. To do so is to recognize that Christianity in general, and Methodism in particular, is marked by traditions that have continually been passed on, critiqued, eliminated, created, and re-invented for the sake of a living Christian witness. What we can hope for is that God is there in the future already, pulling us toward God’s own New Creation

The Organization of American States (OAS) in Rhetoric and Reality

The purpose of this study is to examine how well the countries in the Western Hemisphere translate Organization of American States’ (OAS) resolutions into actual meaningful legislation, and how international discourse influences, or does not, domestic policy. This study will utilize the data program QDA Miner in order to better analyze texts of agreements and treaties put forth by the OAS, and to highlight the correlation between different types of rhetoric and meaningful member state action. Data will be gathered primarily from the OAS’ own data bases and compiled into the QDA software for analysis. This analysis will allow the agreements to be divided into “rhetoric categories.” After the agreements are analyzed and divided up into their respective rhetoric categories, regression will be run using SPSS 19.1 IBM software. This software will allow for the interpretation of whether or not there is a correlation between competing types of international discourse and the domestic policies of member states. Prior to this study, many different research studies have been carried out to examine what compels different countries act in accordance with International Organizations and what does not. Compliance with international declarations and agreements has long since been a question and focal point of study when analyzing international institutions and this study aims to understand what role, if any, language and rhetoric plays in the issue of compliance

The Early Buddhist Archaeology of Myanmar: Tagaung, Thagara, and the Mon-Pyu dichotomy

Discussion of the limitations of interpreting early Buddhist communities in broad ethno-linguistic categories

Subjective and objective indicators of recovery in severe mental illness: a cross-sectional study

Background: This study aimed to determine whether subjective dimensions of recovery such as empowerment are associated with self-report of more objective indicators such as level of participation in the community and income from employment. A secondary aim was to investigate the extent to which diagnosis or other consumer characteristics mediated any relationship between these variables. Methods: The Community Integration Measure, the Empowerment Scale, the Recovery Assessment Scale, and the Camberwell Assessment of Needs Short Appraisal Schedule were administered to a convenience sample of 161 consumers with severe mental illness. Results: The majority of participants had a primary diagnosis of schizophreniform, anxiety/depression or bipolar affective disorder. The Empowerment Scale was quite strongly correlated with the Recovery Assessment Scale and the Community Integration Measure. Participants with a diagnosis of bipolar affective disorder had signifi cantly higher recovery and empowerment scores than participants with schizophrenia or depression. Both empowerment and recovery scores were significantly higher for people engaged in paid employment than for those receiving social security benefits. Conclusions: The measurement of subjective dimensions of recovery such as empowerment has validity in evaluation of global recovery for people with severe mental illness. A diagnosis of bipolar disorder is associated with higher scores on subjective and objective indicators of recovery

Finger-marked designs on ancient bricks in Myanmar

Bricks with finger-marked designs are found at many of the ancient cities of Myanmar. A comparative study of the bricks, the designs, and the sites where they are found has been conducted over the last twenty-five years. Aerial photographs have long been used in Myanmar, but there has been no previous classification of the ancient settlements, numbering over one hundred, whose walls and/ or moats make them visible from the air