Beasts Of Burden Research Articles

Écrire l'animal aujourd'hui by Lucile Desblache

470 Reviews on a particular aspect of post-Lachmannianism, the nature and frequency of bi partite stemmas ('Additional Materials A. [Final Remarks on Bipartite Stemmas]', pp. 207-15; the Italian original is inBelfagor, 6i (2006), 452-65). Despite itsbeing an unpolished torso, this isTimpanaro at his best. He concedes defeat with unreserved frankness, and yet keeps on discussing with no hidden intent to reverse the already accepted verdict, but rather to clarify, to the best of his knowledge, the ramifications and implications of the complex argument. A lesson tobe learnt. DURHAM UNIVERSITY AND UNIVERSITA DI SIENA CARLO CARUSO Ecrire l'animal aujourd'hui. Ed. by LUCILE DESBLACHE. (Les Cahiers de Recherche du Centre de Recherches sur les Litteratures Modernes et Contemporaines) Clermont-Ferrand: Presses Universitaires Blaise Pascal. 2oo6. 287 pp. E20. ISBN 978-2-845I6-308-9. Allegedly helpless kittens at one extreme, and sharks at the other: animals evoke in us humans a complex range of emotions from tenderness to terror.To a farmer,of course, they signifymainly a living from food,work (beasts of burden or traction), or they require extermination. All animals are equal, but some aremore equal than others. (No contributor to thisvolume mentions Animal Farm.) How can carnivorous humans be other than ambivalent about the slaughter of animals? Some might protest cruelty en route to the abattoir.More fundamentalist protesters murderously assert animal rights,or, ifphilosophically inclined, indict speciesism. In her preface, the editor of this collection, Lucile Desblache, draws a line be tween the older tradition (reduce your own beastliness by focusing on beasts) and the contemporary 'Recognize your animality'. Either tactic uses animals forour pur poses. Can anyone write realistically, scientifically about animals without implicitly conveying an ethical, political, or other pointed message? Try a turnaround. Alain Montandon's leisurely analysis of some animal-fantasy stories byHaruki Murakami suggests that theuncanniness of theweird beasts represented there isultimately de feated by the sheer banality, the vacuum, of the human world: a nice twist on the toposwhich classically argues the opposite proposition, thevictory of theunusual. For Veronique Leonard-Roques, John Steinbeck's Travels with Charley and Paul Auster's Timbuktu exploit animals (dogs) as distancing agents. Auster's dog is cre dited with 'un regard de Huron' (p. 44), though itdoes not attain the Martian's-eye perspective of the canine inQueneau's Le Chiendent. Anthropomorphism rules, per haps inevitably, forhow can we know, except in terms of pleasure or pain, fear or aggression, how an animal is reacting toour interventions?Though many people talk to animals, how many believe they are trulygetting through? So animals are stand ins.Although inFrench stupidity and animals are inextricable (bete,betise,betifier-to talk asininely), though there are dogs and underdogs, inboth these authors the dogs are equal picaresque heroes, and lend themselves to pointed humour. Steinbeck re cycles Don Quixote, with Charley reprising the lowly but wise Sancho Panza. Few contributors address thequestion of sentimentality, corniness. In a rarepaper on the comic potentialities of animals, Isabelle Rabadi writes spiri tedly on the ludicworld-upside-down of Eric Chevillard, where animals come more fully into theirown by takingover fromdownsized humans. Those creatures thatbite offa limb to escape a trapput people docilely handcuffed to a gendarme in the shade. Of course, verbal games are quintessentially human: nobody claims that chimps or whales pun. Nevertheless, Isabelle Ribadi persuasively salutes Chevillard's celebra tion of the elastic resources of language. She quotes hiswitty comment: 'J'aime bien les animaux, ce sont de droles de zebres, de droles d'oiseaux' (p. I04). MLR, I02.2, 2007 47 I Anne Tomiche takes the nightingale inRomantic poetry (English, French, Ger man), which has been linked since antiquity with artistic creation, and investigates how some recent poets displace, play with, or subvert this commonplace. Thus Jacques Reda privileges themaddening, rattling snigger of themagpie, and Ted Hughes the harsh cawing of crows. For Tomiche, both poets, while anti-lyrical, re main Romantics. There is a bridge paper on mermaids, by Catherine d'Humieres, and another by Anne Wawrzyniak on Angela Carter's dystopian, gastroporn The InfernalDesire Ma chinesofDoctor Hofman. This textattacks the systematic exploitation of animals, and ofwomen, bymen; itcauses hybrids toproliferate, as theboundaries between humans...

:The Armored Horse in Europe, 1480-1620

The horse was an integral part of Renaissance culture, not only as a beast of burden but also as a sign of rank and status. For the nobility equitation was an essential skill, both socially and militarily. Horses played a pivotal role in warfare and often wore armour as elaborate and expensive as that of their riders. Drawing exclusively from the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, this catalogue features various types of European horse armour dating from 1480 to 1620. Splendid examples, many of which are unpublished or rarely seen, are examined in terms of style, construction, and decoration. Exhibition schedule: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 15 February 2005 to 15 January 2006.

Saving male time, exploiting female labour: The woman as the “driving force” in premodern society, 1700–1914

Research on the division of male and female labor during pre-industrial and industrial times has overlooked the significance of the bearing and carrying work done by women in a variety of occupations. The history of the labor force in and around the city of Liege in Belgium provides numerous examples of how women – almost like beasts of burden – carried over long distances bread, coal, and the finished products of domestic industry. In industrializing Liege, they not only took care of the above-ground conveyancing in coal mining, but also often pulled barges through canals and rivers. These activities by women, badly remunerated, eliminated the need for men in these tasks, and thus saved entrepreneurs both time and money. The nuanced investigation of work time, family time, and the division of labor among the sexes, as carried out by Tamara Hareven, has sensitized researchers to questions of this kind for understanding the nature of work in the pre-modern times as well as in the process of industrialization.

A Year in the South: Four Lives in 1865. By Stephen V. Ash. (New York: Palgrave, 2002. xiv, 289 pp. $26.95, isbn 0-312-29493-X.)

Reconstruction is but dimly glimpsed by most Americans. It is shrouded by a fog of tragic era mythology, on the one hand, and densely argued academic studies, on the other. This book penetrates that fog to offer a well-composed, often poignant glimpse of life in the South during the war's final days and the early months of Reconstruction. It does so through a close examination of four Southerners who left extensive first-person accounts of their lives during this period: Samuel Agnew, a Mississippi parson and planter; John Robertson, a former Confederate soldier from east Tennessee; Cornelia McDonald, a widow living in Lexington, Virginia; and Louis Hughes, an African American from Mississippi. Each confronts a different challenge. For Agnew, it is the frustration of running a plantation given the exasperating independence shown by former slaves; for Robertson, surviving the sometimes lethal hostility of his neighbors in east Tennessee. For McDonald it is the struggle to keep starvation from overtaking herself and her seven children, while for Hughes—clearly a man of exceptional ability—it is the task of finding a place for his creative business energies in a land that views him as scarcely more than a beast of burden.

THE MIQNEH OF 1 SAMUEL XXIII 51

AbstractThis article re-examines two diculties raised by 1 Sam. xxiii 5: why are Philistine miqneh present at a battle, and why is David said to drive them obefore he defeats the Philistines. H.W. Hertzberg's view that the unusual order in which events are recorded re ects a successful attack made by David early in the encounter on the Philistines who were guarding the beasts of burden is defended as more satisfactory than other hypotheses which have been advanced, although the miqneh should not be equated with beasts of burden. Theories which attempt to explain the presence of miqneh with the Philistine raiders are discussed, and it is argued that the miqneh are best understood as animals seized by the Philistines during the raid, together, probably, with some beasts of burden.

“To Lose One’s Soul”: Blasphemy and Slavery in New Spain, 1596-1669

“To Lose One’s Soul”: Blasphemy and Slavery in New Spain, 1596-1669

Postcolonial Representation of Aboriginal Australian Culture

Postcolonial Representation of Aboriginal Australian Culture

Colonial Ethnography and Supernatural Bears

Traders' Tales: Narratives of Cultural Encounters in Columbia Plateau, 1807-1846 By Elizabeth Vibert University of Oklahoma Press, 1997 In epilogue to Traders' Tales. Narratives of Cultural Encounters in Columbia Plateau, 1807-1846, Elizabeth Vibert briefly draws our attention to a fascinating Canadian land claims case, Delgamuukw v. British Columbia, in which presiding judge ascribed unquestioned truth-value to fur trade journals from nineteenth century while dismissing oral histories of Gitksan and Wet'suwet'en people. Generally speaking, Justice McEachern observed in his 1991 ruling, I accept just about everything [historian expert witnesses] put before me because they were largely collectors of archival, historical documents. In most cases they provided much useful information with minimal editorial comment. Their marvellous collections largely spoke for themselves (qtd. in Mills 18). In contrast, McEachern downplayed value of anthropologists' reports of resilient and sophisticated political and cultural practices of Gitksan and Wet'suwet'en, on grounds that anthropologists were biased in favor of plaintiffs. And after listening to days, weeks, and months of testimony from elders and chiefs about their peoples' history and land occupancy, McEachern found that plaintiffs could not hold title to land they claimed because they did not, in his opinion, pass what is known as organized society test: the absence of any written history, wheeled vehicles, or beasts of burden . . . , he wrote, suggest Gitksan and Wet'suwet'en civilizations, if they qualify for that description, fall within a much lower, primitive order (qtd. in Mills 16). Both McEachern's claims and his language are startlingly anachronistic; if one did not know provenance of his statement, one could quite reasonably expect it to be a direct quotation from a nineteenth-century source. And ignorance is cut with antagonism: Antonia Mills points out that McEachern even appears to hold Gitksan and Wet'suwet'en people responsible for fact that horse was not indigenous to Americas. Not surprisingly, Justice McEachern's ruling has been

10.2307/3505102

10.2307/3505102

The ecology of a free-living population of the ass (Equus africanus) at Kalpitiya, Sri Lanka

The ass was introduced into Sri Lanka many centuries ago, probably from north-eastern Africa by Arab traders, and became a conspicuous member of the herbivore fauna of the north-western coastal areas of the island. Now devalued as a ‘beast of burden' by the internal combustion engine, it survives as a few small and isolated populations. A study of the population at Kalpitiya near Puttalam was started in 1995. Its members resemble the wild Nubian subspecies (Equus africanus africanus) closely in their external features. Monthly counts using the road-strip method indicate a density of 16.8 per km2 and a social structure of (a) small family units usually consisting of one male with one or more females and their young, (b) small groups of bachelor males and (c) isolated males. Feeding occupies the greater part of the daylight hours: mating and foaling occur throughout the year. About 85% of the population is adult and thus aged three years or more. Vertical sections of the cementum at the base of the upper M1 teeth from a sample of collected skulls suggest an annual increment of about 0.2 mm which includes two ‘dark' layers perhaps formed during the two dry seasons. On this interpretation the maximum longevity would be about 45 years. The subspecies forms an important part of the biological diversity of the coastal zone and appears to be excellently adapted to inhabit a marginal habitat without over-exploiting it. Its survival in Sri Lanka has been threatened particularly by loss of habitat due to indiscriminate development of prawn farms (which also destroy the coastal mangrove forests), and now by the resettlement of refugees from civil conflict in northern and eastern Sri Lanka, and potentially ill considered and over ambitious tourist developments. As at the least a rare breed of the species which is a feral relict, and possibly a genetically little modified form of the Nubian subspecies, which is close to extinction in its native land, it is in urgent need of management and protection based on conservation of its habitat.

Remembering Slavery (review)

?? B S ' JfLt Remembering Slavery Ira Berlin, Marc Favreau, Steven Miller, editors The New Press (Norton), 1998, 352 pp. + cassette, $49.95 For the past quarter century, historians of the Old South's "peculiar institution" have examined the slave experience not through the white filter of the slaveholders' perspective, which was once the accepted practice , but from the bottom up, through the experiences of the slaves themselves . The source material for this groundbreaking historiographical shift was not the famous nineteenthcentury narratives of exceptional ex-slaves such as Frederick Douglass (which once served the abolitionists' cause and consequently were somewhat suspect) but written transcripts of interviews with former slaves conducted by oral historians of the Federal Writers' Project in the late 1930s. These little-known narratives had long been tucked away in the Library of Congress and were seldom accessed by the lay public. Drawn exclusively from this unique collection, Remembering Slavery is a book-and-tape set of transcripts and recordings of historic interviews with former slaves who vividly recount their own experiences in bondage as weU as their personal thoughts on Emancipation and the meaning of freedom. For the first time the general public is introduced to the poignant voices of the last Uving victims of the institution that has most shaped American history. During the Depression, interviewers from the Federal Writers' Project spoke with hundreds of elderly exslaves about their lives in slavery and even managed to record a smaU number of them on tape. The interviewers, including such notable figures as Zora Neale Hurston and John Lomax, asked ex-slaves about everything from daily routines and ways of life to their relationships with their former masters and with other slaves. Both taped and written interviews document almost every aspect of slave life; they reveal how slaves were born, their living arrangements, what they ate, wore and thought, their relationship with the land and their daily triumphs and frustrations. Of particular interest is the way they also illuminate the subtle dynamics behind the development of a distinct slave culture and community; we see how bondsmen created and preserved their culture in the face of oppression. We see, too, their everyday forms of resistance—survival techniques that helped them to maintain a sense of control and dignity in the face of hardship. 210 · The Missouri Review As expected, the narratives underscore the cruelty ofAmerican slavery and the bitterness of its victims. One woman teUs how an abusive mistress crushed her head under a rocking chair, deforming her face for life. Others tell stories of serving as beasts of burden and of the excruciating ordeal of witnessing a family member or friend sold to another master. But there are also stories of happiness —of marriage and family, religious experiences, celebrations such as com shuckings, of bonding together and looking out for one another, of outwitting masters and overseers and of escaping or helping others to escape. We hear Civil War stories from a unique perspective— experiences by slaves behind Confederate and Union lines. Finally, we hear Emancipation described—and freedom defined—by the people who endured the worst oppression in American history. (BR) The Meme Machine by Susan Blackmore Oxford U.P., New York, 1999, 286 pp., $25 The word "même" was coined by evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins , author of the controversial theory that the gene, not the organism , is the unit of selection (The Selfish Gene, 1976). Dawkins argued that DNA is not the only conceivable medium in 'which Darwinian evolution can occur. He posited the existence of mêmes, nonbiological units of replication and competition that produce cultural evolution. Mêmes are abstract units of culture—concepts, images, instructions, stories, facts (or myths), jokes—anything that can be copied and spread. Susan Blackmore's new book, The Meme Machine, explores the possibility of a full-blown theory of memetics. With a blend of caution and boldness (she duly notes several fundamental problems in defining the nature of the même but then sidesteps these obstacles to pursue larger game), she applies memetic theory to some of the most controversial issues in evolutionary psychology and consciousness, including the origin of language, sexual attitudes, altruism, and the proportionately enormous...

A Forgotten People: The Sakhalin Koreans

A Forgotten People: The Sakhalin Koreans. Directed by Dai Sil Kim-Gibson. 1995. 1/2 Video, Color. 59 min. Distributed by National Asian American Telecommunications Association (NAATA), 346 Ninth St., 2nd Fl., San Francisco, CA 94103. 16mm Film. $265. Video Rental: $75. Film Rental: $150. During final years of Korea's occupation by Japan, over 40,000 Koreans were sent-many forcibly conscripted-to work as laborers on southern Sakhalin Island, then a Japanese territory. When World War II came to an end, however, and all Sakhalin fell under Soviet rule, political circumstances prevented these displaced unfortunates from returning to their homeland, and their plight has since been largely ignored by outside world. A Forgotten People: The Sakhalin Koreans, a film written, directed and produced by Dai Sil Kim-Gibson, devotes itself to allowing their moving story to be heard. The opening sequence pans slowly over attractive forested hillsides of Sakhalin, but beauty of land belies horror of stories recounted. As a plaintive soundtrack of classical Korean music sets a melancholy mood, encounter a litany of harrowing tales: interviewees describe how they were snatched from their families as young men and sent to a distant land to further imperial Japanese war effort. Their accounts tell of frequent beatings and appalling living conditions, marked by a meager diet, inadequate shelter, and intense cold; former mine laborers detail dangers of their work and attendant possibilities of disease, disfigurement, and death. The film captures recurrent use of animal similes in interviewees' self-presentation (e.g. the Japanese worked us like horses and oxen, we were like pigs in one room), and thus effectively evokes dehumanization they experienced: those sent to Sakhalin became, quite literally, beasts of burden. But editorial presentation suggests an even more fundamental effacement of their identities: we've become nameless souls, sighs one elderly gentleman. The title itself strikes a keynote which recurs several times: Koreans of Sakhalin see themselves as exiled from their homes and then abandoned by world. The voiceover narrative concurs, noting upon more than one occasion that no one remembered these people. The film highlights particularly an everpresent longing for land left behind. Again and again meet people struggling with burden of their memories: one miner's daughter describes nostalgically how she came from a village with a beautiful river and mountains, from which she was uprooted, and traveled with her family to a cold, cold country. For many, Korea becomes an idealized motherland of distant past seen in contrast to frozen land of their more recent lives. Although notion of han (often paraphrased as unrequited resentment or sorrow), so central to Korean popular discourse, is never invoked directly in production, both self-presentation of interviewees and narrative viewpoint are thoroughly informed by this concept. One Sakhalin resident relates a friend's deathbed words, which veritably burst with han:if you ever go back to Korea, tell everyone our story, story kept in our chests. In most cases self is presented first and foremost as an ethnic subject, and those interviewed often become, above all, exiled Koreans. …

Custom-made beast of burden

Custom-made beast of burden

Physicians Accessing the Internet, the PAI Project

Some of us have been expecting physicians to move en masse to use that wonderful beast of burden—the computer—for several decades.¹But, with each new wave of exciting hardware, glitzy software, and mass promotion, physicians en masse have instead shunned routine personal use of computers in their education and practice. Of course, for decades physicians' offices and hospitals have used computers for scheduling and billing, their libraries for MEDLINE searches, their clinical laboratories for reporting laboratory results, and their imaging centers for advanced diagnosis with great success. And a number of physicians— mostly at large centers or as part of specialized professional groups like the American Medical Informatics Association— indeed are pushing the edge of the envelope when it comes to computer applications. Yet, personal direct computer use for medical purposes by hundreds of thousands of US physicians has lagged badly behind the capability of the systems and technology.

Curriculum Reform at Key Stage 1: Teacher Commitment and Policy Failure

Key Stage 1 - the policy context and emerging issues the 50-hour working week - here to stay? delivering the broad and balanced curriculum assessment and testing Year 2 teachers - beasts of burden or first over the top invisible workloads - preparation and professional development administration and other activities failure and fatigue - the consequences of conscientiousness terminal judgements - perceptions of continuities and change.

Si morbus aevitasve vitium escit

Considering the Twelve Tables today, it seems important to question whether the statute was humanitarian. It became also problematic for Roman lawyers six centuries after its passage. Aulus Gellius in Noctes Atticae (Gell.20.1.1)55) presents the dispute between philosopher Favorinus from Areate and Sextus Caecilius, who was a jurist. One of the main discussed provision was: Si morbus aevitasve vitium escit, [qui in ius vocabit] iumentum dato. Si nolet, arceram ne sternito (tab. 1.2 Gell.20.1.25). The philosopher alleged it was inhuman to interdict the delivery of a comfortable vehicle for a seriously diseased or for an old man who was unable to walk as well as to command the transport in ius on beasts of burden (Gell.20.1.11). Arguing that verbis moribusque sententia legum conprehensa est, the lawyer claimed that the Twelve Tables were humanitarian (Gell.20.1.24). It is because the provision had a different meaning (Gell.20.1.26), as morbus meant not a serious illness, which was called morbus sonticus by Decemviri, but usual problems with walking (Gell.20.1.27). Similarly, the iumentum was not only a beast of burden, but a country waggon as well (Gell.20.1.28). The country waggon should be delivered by a plaintiff to ill or aged dependents. However, if defendants had not been satisfied with the ordinary waggon, the plaintiff did not need to offer the comfortable vehicle (Gell.20.1.29)30). The jurist’s argumentation convinced the philosopher and was accepted by their audience.

Manipulation of reproductive functions in male and female camels

Old World camels ( Camelus dromedarius or dromedary and Camel bacterianus or Bacterian camel) have been used for millenia in geographic areas and climates for which they are uniquely adapted. Human survival and trade in these areas has been dependent on the use of camels as beasts of burden, in agriculture, and as a source of milk, meat and fiber. Systematic efforts to apply modern aspects of genetic breeding for improved fertility and productivity are sparse and difficult to comprehend and adopt by nomadic breeders and almost subsistence farmers, in whose hands the majority of camels may be found. As a prerequisite for improvements in reproductive management, a status report is given on the following subjects: puberty, breeding season, the estrous cycle, coitus-induced ovulation and its control with intravaginal infusion of normal ejaculates, those from vasectomized males, and seminal plasma, utero-ovarian relationships and pregnancies. Ovulations can be induced by luteinizing hormone (LH), human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG) and gonadotrophin releasing hormone (GnRH), and superovulations with equine chorionic gonadotrophin (eCG) (pregnant mares' serum gonadotrophin; PMSG). Priming with progesterone (PRID, intravaginally) may enhance superovulatory responses, as does treatment at the correct phase of follicle wave development and the use of hCG. Recipients for embryo transfer can be prepared by using PRID, and hCG to induce ovulations. Embryos can be successfully recovered and transferred by non-surgical methods. Information on males is added which includes data on artificial insemination, involving semen collection via electro-ejaculation, semen characteristics and evaluation methods, deep freezing semen and insemination techniques. Modern methods of reproductive manipulation require sedation and analgesia, for which recently developed a 2-agonists, such as detomidine, are well suited.

Agriculture Sector Employment and the Need for Off-Farm Employment in the North-West Frontier Province

The North-West Frontier Province is essentially a mountainous region intermixed with fertile valleys of agricultural lands. The diversity of the region is well reflected through the agro-ecological regions map of the Pakistan Agricultural Research Councile where 6 out of the 10 regions indentified are .found in the NWFP. The total population of the NWFP stood at 11.1 million persons in 1981 with an annual growth rate higher than the national average (3.32 percent as against 3.1 percent for Pakistan). Moreover, the literacy rate is abysmally low, standing as it d~es at about 16.7 percent (which according to some is an optimistic estimate). The inflow of over 3.5 million Afghan refugees and the location of more than three-fourths of this number in the NWFP has compounded the problems with far reaching implications for the economy, environment and the level of off-farm employment. The influx of these refugees with their herds and beasts of burden have tended to encroach on forest lands and led to over-grazing of pastures resulting in environmental degradation. The rapidly mUltiplying demand for food has led to crops being grown on steep and unstable slopes.

A beast of burden

How great is the burden of bureaucracy on the entrepreneur? Mike Fisher, an IEA trustee, writes from personal experience as managing director of Whale Tankers, a small private manufacturing company.

Artists and Daughters in Louisa May Alcott's Diana and Persis

The line of duty which dictated Louisa's life was rigid and unswerving, a rod of iron which she inherited from her stern father. In Amos Bronson Alcott's philosophy, the body must be subjected to the spirit, emotion to thought. The line of duty represents this subjection. The line of beauty, on the other hand, as Ticknor's vocabulary suggests, represents the body and its desires. It is soft, sinuous, and phallo-eccentric. If, according to Bronson Alcott, the spirit is transcendent and the body immanent, and thus the line of duty is perpendicular to the line of beauty, for Louisa and May this relation was reversed. In the pursuit of her chosen line, May figuratively rode on the back of her dutiful older sister. Louisa supported the entire family, and May in particular, through writing, sewing, and housework. The repression of her own desire for beauty and pleasure turned her into a beast of burden.