Eastern Frontier Research Articles

Keeping up with the Neighbours: Diffusion of Norms and Practices Through Networks of Employer and Employee Organizations in the Eastern Partnership and the Mediterranean

AbstractUsing social network analysis and logistic regression, we analyse how inter‐organizational networks facilitate co‐operation and the transfer of best practice from EU‐based organizations to organizations in the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) countries. More specifically, we examine networks of employer and employee organizations that participate in the Civil Society Forum of the Eastern Partnership and in TRESMED, a Mediterranean project. We find that networks are successful at disseminating principles and good practices of economic and social partnership, but also that dissemination proceeds slowly. In addition, we detect more co‐operation among employer than among employee organizations, which reflects collective action difficulties facing organized labour more generally. Last, we find that inter‐organizational co‐operation is more intense in the Southern than in the Eastern neighbourhood, which is explained by contextual differences as well as by the EU's longer‐term engagement with the Mediterranean than with the countries on its Eastern frontier.

Telepsychiatry: Experience of Ethnocultural Research of Mental Health of Kazakhstan and Siberia

Objective Study of clinical and social-psychological aspects of mental disorders associated with somatic diseases with distinguishing the basic pathogenetic factors and development of stepwise therapeutic programs. Material and Methods Analyzed material – persons seeking for psychiatric help at primary care units on eastern frontier territories of Kazakhstan and Russia. Factorial analysis has identified the most significant factors (somatic-vegetative, psychopathological syndromes, somatic pathology, age peculiarities) in formation of combined mental and somatic diseases. With account for specifics of the contingent of patients, age structure, therapeutic-diagnostic complex of general primary care units, stepwise rehabilitative programs have been developed. Results Basic stages of therapy have been distinguished: initial, basic and maintenance. Rehabilitative programs have been developed and introduced: for patients with neurotic disorders, organic mental disorders, personality disorders, affective disorders, alcohol dependence, and separately for persons of younger and elder age. Basic principles of rendering of medical assistance have been structured: complexity, sufficiency, individual-differentiated approach, continuity, cooperativeness. Conclusions Use of base of general somatic primary care units, integrative approach during rendering of specialized psychiatric assistance to patients with mental disorders appeared to be most effective and lesser economically expensive as compared with institutional assistance at a profile institution.

Potential and Possibility of Developing Guwahati as a Primate City in North East India

Despite being well endowed with natural resources, north eastern frontier of India is considered to be one of economically laggard regions. Absence of adequate infrastructure, coupled with a lack of any economically vibrant urban centre, has impeded the economic growth and development of the North East India. The paper is an attempt to deliberate on the need of establishing a Primate city in the region which can attract investments and industries. Such a city, it is argued, will create jobs, increase economic growth, and stem the flow of ever increasing out migration from the region to major urban centres of the rest of India. Demographic, industrial and migration data of major cities of North East India will be evaluated to ascertain the suitability of Guwahati as such a future mega city of the region.

The dissection of a Pleistocene refugium: phylogeography of the smooth newt, Lissotriton vulgaris, in the Balkans

AbstractAimTo assess the role of the Balkan Peninsula as a Pleistocene refugium for the smooth newt, Lissotriton vulgaris, and to test whether its genetic differentiation is temporally compatible with the southern refugia model.LocationThe Balkan Peninsula.MethodsPhylogeographical analyses were conducted using mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequences sampled from 49 populations of L. vulgaris. A fossil‐calibrated estimate of divergence times among major mtDNA clades was obtained.ResultsWe detected seven parapatrically distributed mtDNA clades with very little admixture among populations. Whereas most clades diverged in the Pleistocene, the earliest splits between Caucasian, Anatolian and Balkan clades occurred in the Pliocene. Clades C, D, K and M have local distributions within the Balkans and have evolved in isolation from other groups. Clade L originated in the Pannonian Basin and northern margin of the Balkan Peninsula and recently expanded across central and western Europe. Clades H and E have recently arrived in the Balkans from source populations in the Apennine Peninsula and Anatolia, respectively.Main conclusionsThe history of L. vulgaris involves multiple, independent refugial populations in the Balkans. Only one of them, located at the northern periphery of the peninsula, showed evidence of post‐glacial expansion into western and northern Europe. The Balkans have therefore served as a reservoir of old diversity for L. vulgaris. By contrast, populations at the northern and eastern frontiers of the peninsula have experienced non‐equilibrium dynamics. Our dating revealed that very little, if any, pre‐Pliocene genetic diversity has survived in Europe, despite an extensive fossil record for this species in the Miocene and Pliocene. Differentiation of the European mtDNA clades thus seems to have been primarily moulded by Pleistocene climate change. None of the currently recognized subspecies present in the Balkans are reciprocally monophyletic in their mtDNA. We hypothesize that incomplete lineage sorting and mtDNA introgression account for the observed discrepancies.

“THE WAR TOOK ITS ORIGINS IN A MISTAKE”: THE THIRD WAR OF DISPOSSESSION AND RESISTANCE IN THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE COLONY, 1799–1803

The early colonial wars on the Cape Colony’s eastern borderlands and western Xhosaland, such as the 1799–1803 war, have not received as much attention from military historians as the later wars. This is unexpected since this lengthy conflict was the first time the British army fought indigenous people in southern Africa. This article revisits the 1799–1803 war, examines the surprisingly fluid and convoluted alignments of participants on either side, and analyses how the British became embroiled in a conflict for which they were unprepared and for which they had little appetite. It explores the micro narrative of why the British shifted from military action against rebellious Boers to fighting the Khoikhoi and Xhosa. It argues that in 1799, the British stumbled into war through a miscalculation – a mistake which was to have far-reaching consequences on the Cape’s eastern frontier and in western Xhosaland for over a century.

Dominikanie na kresach wschodnich Rzeczypospolitej Obojga Narodów (teren dzisiejszej Białorusi)

Celem artykułu jest zarysowanie historii obecności zakonu dominikańskiego na tej części Kresów Wschodnich dawnej Rzeczypospolitej (Wielkie Księstwo Litewskie), które obecnie leżą w granicach państwa białoruskiego, począwszy od średniowiecza do drugiej połowy XIX wieku. Na terenie tym istniało 45 placówek dominikańskich, które zostały skasowane przez władze zaboru rosyjskiego w XIX wieku. Dominikanie prowadzili nie tylko działalność duszpasterską (głównie kaznodziejstwo i parafie), ale także oświatową i kulturalną. W okresie powstań zakonnicy również czynnie brali w nich udział, za co spotkały ich represje (emigracja, zsyłki na Syberię, kasaty klasztorów i konfiskata mienia i dóbr kultury).

The Costs of Fortress Construction in Tenth-Century Germany: The Case of Hildagsburg

It is generally recognized that the Ottonian kings of Germany (919-1024) were powerful. However, there is a great deal of controversy among specialists in the history of the early medieval German kingdom regarding the basis of this power. One school of thought holds that rulers such as Otto I (936-973) ruled rather than governed, and were able to use their sacral authority to mobilize the secular and particularly ecclesiastical magnates of the German kingdom to do their bidding. Another school of thought raises the possibility that the Ottonian kings utilized the administrative inheritance from their Carolingian predecessors to govern Germany in manner consistent with earlier states, which made extensive use of the written word among other administrative technologies. This study is intended to demonstrate the enormous resources that were deployed by the Ottonian kings to construct hundreds of fortifications, principally along the eastern frontiers of the German kingdom. The concomitant necessity of mobilizing vast numbers of workers as well as food and supplies point to the advanced administrative capacities of the royal government under the Ottonians and consequently the maintenance of a Carolingian-style administration during the long tenth century.

‘Tell England, Ye Who Pass this Monument’: English-speaking South Africans, Memory and War Remembrance until the Eve of the Second World War

The article places remembrance in the context of the development of an English-speaking South African identity until 1939. It looks at the interconnectedness between identity and memory and traces the emergence of a group memory common to the majority of English-speakers and linking them to other members of the British diaspora, particularly in the other dominions. The way in which English-speakers commemorated and memorialised the wars in which they fought is the main focus, beginning with the Cape eastern frontier wars, the Anglo-Zulu War and the South African War. The article then concentrates on the commemoration and memorialisation of the First World War until 1939, examining the role of organisations such as the South African Legion of the British Empire Service League and the MOTHS and touching on the role of the patriotic associations, schools and churches. The emphasis is on the memorialisation of the battle of Delville Wood and the commemorations associated with Delville Wood and Armistice Days and the way in which the First World War reflected the continuing British identity of English-speakers as well as the growth of a South Africanist identity. The way in which honouring the fallen was linked to service and duty is examined.

Mobile visitors to the Eastern Frontier Pueblos: An archaeological example from Tabirá

For some time archaeologists have sought evidence of interactions noted in Spanish documents between mobile groups and the Eastern Frontier Pueblos specifically at the Salinas Pueblos. Most effort has focused on the examination and excavation of the pueblos themselves, either under the assumption that visitors routinely lived within the pueblos or because evidence of mobile visitors around and outside the pueblo has not been forthcoming. Surveys over the past decade have revealed evidence of mobile group encampments at the perimeter of these pueblos, consistent with mobile group signatures defined elsewhere in the region. One example described in this article, site LA 152447 is located near and within the influence zone of the pueblo inferred to be the historically referenced Tabirá. This site is a large mobile group encampment with numerous structures. Site LA 152447 is described and discussed with reference to documentary and ethnographic data. Implications for recognizing these types of mobile group sites are discussed.

Roman Palmyra: Identity, Community, and State Formation

Roman Palmyra: Identity, Community, and State Formation

A new species of Nemacerota Hampson, [1893] (Lepidoptera, Thyatiridae) from Tibet, China.

The genus Nemacerota Hampson, [1893] includes 14 species worldwide, which are mainly distributed from Pakistan along the main Himalayan chain, the eastern frontier of the Tibetan plateau and the Central Chinese mountains to the northern Pacific regions. Ten species have been recorded from China. Among them, only N. tancrei (Graeser, 1888) occurs in NE China, whereas all other taxa inhabit mountainous areas in Central China, the eastern frontier of the Tibetan plateau or Tibet. N. igorkostjuki Laszlo, Ronkay, Ronkay & Witt, 2007 is found only in the southern edge of Tibet (Nyalam = Nielamu); N. mandibulata Laszlo, Ronkay, Ronkay & Witt, 2007, N. taurina Laszlo, Ronkay, Ronkay & Witt, 2007, N. stueningi Laszlo, Ronkay, Ronkay & Witt, 2007, N. pectinata (Houlbert, 1921), N. inouei Laszlo, Ronkay, Ronkay & Witt, 2007 and N. owadai Laszlo, Ronkay, Ronkay & Witt, 2007 are known from Mt. Taibaishan, Shaanxi Province; N. griseobasalis (Sick, 1941), N. decorata (Sick, 1941) and N. pectinata (Houlbert, 1921) occur in the northwestern parts of Yunnan Province (and, possibly, also in southern Sichuan). Here we describe a new species from the Linzhi area, Autonomous Region Xizang (Tibet), China. Specimens were dissected and examined using standard methods; adult photographs were photographed with a Nikon D700; genitalic slides were photographed using the Qcapture pro system, and processed in Adobe Photoshop CS5 software.

Territorial rule in Colombia and the transformation of the Llanos Orientales by Jane M. Rausch (review)

Reviewed by: Territorial rule in Colombia and the transformation of the Llanos Orientales by Jane M. Rausch Andrés Ernest Guhl Territorial rule in Colombia and the transformation of the Llanos Orientales. Jane M. Rausch. Gainesville, Florida: University Press of Florida, 2013. x and 187 pp., maps, tables, glossary and index (ISBN 978-0-8130-4466-8) (US $69.95) This book is the latest from Emerita Professor of History, Jane M. Rausch. Her books provide a complete survey of the history of the Llanos region of Colombia, and emphasizes the “region’s interaction with the highland core from 1946 to 2010 – in order to investigate recent developments that have occurred in Colombia’s eastern frontier” (vii). Her other three books cover the history of the Llanos during colonial times (A Tropical Plains Frontier: The Llanos of Colombia, 1531–1831), the consolidation of the country as an independent republic (The Llanos Frontier in Colombian History: 1830–1930), and the region’s transformations associated with the modernization of Colombia since 1930 until the beginning of an extremely violent period known as la violencia in which political parties battled against each other for political power in rural areas of the country (Colombia: Territorial Rule and the Llanos Frontier). As in her previous books, Rausch demonstrates through rigorous research that the llanos have played a more important role in Colombia’s evolution than usually acknowledged. The book is divided into six chapters. The first five chapters are chronologically arranged, and each one of them provides an overview of the llanos region and its relationship with the highlands during a specific time period. The first chapter provides a summary of the most important aspects of the territorial history of the llanos since colonial times until 1946. The following four chapters deal with la violencia (1946–1953), the dictatorship of Gustavo Rojas Pinilla (1953–1957), The National Front and beyond (1958–1978), and what the Rausch calls the contemporary era (1978–2010). The last chapter of the book provides a synthesis of how the region and the concepts used to describe and analyze it have changed through time. She also highlights the growing body of new researchers in the region trying to study the area by shunning away from the traditional historical analysis where the llanos are just a peripheral area with little influence in the rest of the country, therefore expanding the analytical reach of historical research. Frontier is the most important concept Rausch uses for her analysis of territorial transformation in the region. Although she acknowledges that the concept has been contested and reinterpreted since Frederick Jackson Turner proposed it in 1893, she finds it as a useful tool to approach the territorial transformation in the region. From the beginning of the book Rausch defines frontier as “a geographical region originally inhabited by native people that lies at the edge Hispanic settlement” (viii). Throughout the book, she uses this concept to describe and delineate the region where territorial power is contested among the Colombian state and other actors. However, she also uses frontier’s meaning as an international boundary, emphasizing the close ties of the region to Venezuela. Furthermore, she stresses the importance of studying the Colombian llanos in relation to the larger llanos region (Colombia and Venezuela). Rausch’s book analyzes the recent historical territorial transformation of the llanos taking into account the geographical differences of the four departments that presently make up the region (Meta, Vichada, Arauca and Casanare). Although the llanos are synonymous with cattle ranching and a llanero way of life, there are two different llanos areas. The first two departments are located in what is called the altillanura (the high llanos), while Arauca and Casanare are [End Page 237] in the floodable llanos located north of the Meta River. This difference means two distinct ways of cattle ranching that take into account these two different environments. Furthermore, the author also divides the area into “llanos arriba” (upper llanos) and “llanos abajo”. This distinction more or less corresponds to the Andean range piedmont and its region of influence (llanos arriba), where the territorial transformation has been more significant since mechanized agriculture and agribusiness replaced traditional cattle ranching activities. This...

Henry I of Germany's 929 military campaign in archaeological perspective

In 929, King Henry I of Germany (919–36) launched an exceptionally successful offensive against the Slav polities along the length of his eastern frontier. This campaign, which is recorded in contemporary written accounts, has long been known to historians, and its importance in the political history of the German kingdom is undisputed. However, to date, there is no book‐length or article‐length study devoted to Henry's military successes in 929. This article fills that striking lacuna by drawing on the vast body of information provided through excavations, which sheds considerable new light on the scale and sophistication of Henry I's undertaking.

Colonial Conquest and the Tambookie Frontier: The Story of Maphasa, c.1830–1853

Tambookie, the San name for abaThembu, was adopted by the British for the area north of the eastern Cape colonial boundary in the 1820s. By the 1830s, all those who lived in this liminal zone had become snared in the trap of conquest – none perhaps as inexorably as Maphasa, chief of the amaTshatshu, a Thembu clan. Unstable colonial policy and successive failed attempts to control the Tambookie frontier between 1830 and 1850 buffeted Maphasa. After the eighth frontier war, the British singled out his people serving on them a proclamation that sought to destroy their political power and group identity. In an effort to understand the position of Maphasa and the destruction of his people, this article explores the making of the Tambookie frontier and discusses the chief's vulnerability in his relations with the Moravian missionaries, the Thembu paramount and the British. The story of Maphasa amplifies the history of the north eastern frontier and raises questions for the crisis in African authority in the mid-nineteenth century.

Evaluating the spatial distribution of quantitative risk and hazard level of arsenic exposure in groundwater, case study of Qorveh County, Kurdistan Iran

Regional distribution of quantitative risk and hazard levels due to arsenic poisoning in some parts of Iran’s Kurdistan province is considered. To investigate the potential risk and hazard level regarding arsenic-contaminated drinking water and further carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic effects on villagers, thirteen wells in rural areas of Qorveh County were considered for evaluation of arsenic concentration in water. Sampling campaign was performed in August 2010 and arsenic concentration was measured via the Silver Diethyldithiocarbamate method. The highest and lowest arsenic concentration are reported in Guilaklu and Qezeljakand villages with 420 and 67 μg/L, respectively. None of thirteen water samples met the maximum contaminant level issued by USEPA and Institute of Standards and Industrial Research of Iran (10 ppb). The highest arsenic concentration and consequently risk and hazard levels belong to villages situated alongside the eastern frontiers of the county. Existence of volcanic activities within the upper Miocene and Pleistocene in this part of the study area may be addressed as the main geopogenic source of arsenic pollution. Quantitative risk values are varying from 1.49E-03 in Qezeljakand to 8.92E-03 in Guilaklu and may be interpreted as very high when compared by similar studies in Iran. Regarding non-carcinogenic effects, all thirteen water samples are considered hazardous while all calculated chronic daily intakes are greater than arsenic reference dose. Such drinking water source has the potential to impose adverse carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic effects on villagers. Accordingly, an urgent decision must be made to substitute the current drinking water source with a safer one.

FORTIFICATION AND THE LATE ROMAN EAST: FROM URBAN WALLS TO LONG WALLS

Fortifications are major surviving structures from the late antique world. This article demonstrates the great range of defences constructed across the East Roman Empire, beginning with a case study of the walls of Antioch based on late 18th c. engravings and revealing the scale of a major imperial 5th c. project now largely lost. The survey then reviews evidence from Asia Minor, where there is more limited evidence for new defences. On the eastern frontier, the great fortress cities are well known, but attention is drawn to fortified settlements within the frontier zone in both Roman Mesopotamia and the Balkan provinces. In the Balkan regions, however, a more elaborate response to security was the construction of a number of internal barrier walls, including the Anastasian Wall in Thrace and the newly discovered Haemus Gates. The conclusion assesses the role of fortification in the late antique world and considers the importance of providing multivocal interpretations across the frontiers of the East Roman Empire, engaging both the rich archaeological and textual sources.

Lewis Namier, the Curzon Line, and the shaping of Poland’s eastern frontier after World War I

The purpose of this article is to clarify the role of Lewis Namier, a Foreign Office expert on Polish affairs, and his contribution to the drawing of the “Curzon Line” – the Polish‑Ukrainian border in Eastern Galicia after World War I. Namier was of Polish‑Jewish descent, and he has gone down in Polish historiography as a man of rabidly anti‑Polish inclination; during the war and later at the Versailles Peace Conference, he consistently opposed Poland’s expansion in eastern Europe, notably propagating the view that the whole of the territory known as Kresy – the Eastern Marchlands – should be severed from Poland. His concepts and activities were in tune with the general thrust of British policy towards Poland, though it seems that he was not the eminence grise in Lloyd George’s cabinet in this question, but merely a convenient supplier of anti‑Polish arguments. This analysis aims at proving that the great role attributed to Namier in Polish historiography is exaggerated and it was not he – as is commonly believed – who was the actual author of the Curzon Line, and it was not he who inserted it into the famous note sent from Spa to the Bolsheviks in July 1920.

Three Tales of Theal: Biography, History and Ethnography on the Eastern Frontier

The three narrative strands that inform this essay - the life-story of George McCall Theal, the history of colonialism in South Africa which he wrote, and the Xhosa folktale - are, to a large extent, incongruent with each other, and their interweaving produces an ungainly, sometimes ambivalent overarching narrative. The narrative nevertheless hangs together, perhaps as much because of its gaps and contradictions, as by dint of its points of contiguity. In postcolonial terms, Theal's influential historical and ethnographic texts can be seen to [employ] a system of representation, a regime of truth that is structurally similar to realism (Bhabha 1994, 71), but their dissonances point to their contrivance - and that is the point of departure for this study.

STRATEGIC MILITARY COLONISATION: THE CAPE EASTERN FRONTIER 1806–1872

The Cape Eastern Frontier of South Africa offers a fascinating insight into British military strategy as well as colonial development. The Eastern Frontier was for over 100 years a very turbulent frontier. It was the area where the four main population groups (the Dutch, the British, the Xhosa and the Khoikhoi) met, and in many respects, key decisions taken on this frontier were seminal in the shaping of South Africa. This article seeks to analyse this frontier in a spatial manner, to analyse how British settlement patterns on the ground were influenced by strategy and policy. The time frame of the study reflects the truly imperial colonial era, from the second British occupation of the Cape colony in 1806 until representative self-governance of the Cape colony in 1872.

Phyllonorycter medicaginella (Lepidoptera, Gracillariidae) and its parasitoids (Hymenoptera, Eulophidae) in the Middle Volga River basin

Fifteen species of parasitoids, Chrysocharis idyia (Walker, 1983), Ch. laricinellae (Ratzeburg, 1848), Ch. submutica Graham, 1963, Ch. viridis (Nees, 1834), Hemiptarsenus ornatus (Nees, 1834), Neochrysocharis formosa (Westwood, 1833), Pediobius cassidae Erdos, 1958, P. metallicus (Nees, 1834), Pnigalio nemati (West- wood, 1838), P. mediterraneus Ferriere & Delucchi, 1957, P. pectinicornis (Linnaeus, 1758), P. soemius (Walker, 1839), Rhicnopelte crassicornis (Nees, 1834), Sympiesis gordius (Walker, 1839), and Hyssopus sp. n., were reared from Phyllonorycter medicaginella on Melilotius offlcinalis for the first time. Hyssopus simbirskiensis sp. n. reared from Ph. medicaginella is described. Eight ectoparasitoid species (Hyssopus ornatus, H. simbirskiensis sp. n., Rh. crassicornis, P. mediterraneus, P. nemati, P. pectinicornis, P. soemius, and S. gordius) attack all the larval in- stars of Ph. medicaginella. Seven endoparasitoids (P. cassidae, P. metallicus, Ch. idyia, Ch. laricinellae, Ch. sub- mutica, Ch. viridis, and N. formosa) attack only the 4-5th-instar larvae. DOI: 10.1134/S0013873812080027 As a result of the long-term investigations in the Middle Volga River basin, 28 species of the genus Phyllonorycter were found (Mishchenko and Zolo- tukhin, 2003). One of the pests is the species Phyl- lonorycter medicaginella (Gerasimov, 1930), whose larvae mine grassy legumes. The western border of the range of Ph. medicaginella passes through the territory of Germany and the Netherlands (Kuchlein and Ku- chlein-Nijsten, 2002), and the eastern one coincides with the eastern frontiers of Kazakhstan and the Euro- pean part of Russia as far as the Urals (Kuznetzov, 1981). The Middle Volga River basin is within the distribution range of Ph. medicaginella and the 100%- infection of the melilot with this moth is observed there.