Equinox Publishing Research Articles

The Madaba Plains Project: Forty Years of Archaeological Research into Jordan’s Past, edited by Douglas R. Clark, Larry G. Herr, Øystein S. LaBianca, and Randall W. Younker. Sheffield: Equinox Publishing Ltd, 2011. xx + 305 pp., 142 figures, 1 map. Cloth. £70.00. [Distributed in North America by The David Brown Book Company

Previous articleNext article No AccessBook ReviewsThe Madaba Plains Project: Forty Years of Archaeological Research into Jordan’s Past, edited by Douglas R. Clark, Larry G. Herr, Øystein S. LaBianca, and Randall W. Younker. Sheffield: Equinox Publishing Ltd, 2011. xx + 305 pp., 142 figures, 1 map. Cloth. £70.00. [Distributed in North America by The David Brown Book Company]Piotr BienkowskiPiotr BienkowskiUniversity of Manchester, [email protected] Search for more articles by this author University of Manchester, [email protected] PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Bulletin of the American Society of Overseas Research Volume 367August 2012 A journal of the American Schools of Oriental Research Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.5615/bullamerschoorie.367.0090 Views: 5Total views on this site Journal History This article was published in the Bulletin of the American School of Oriental Research (1921-2021), which is continued by the Bulletin of the American Schools of Overseas Research (2022-present). Copyright 2012 American Schools of Oriental ResearchPDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

U.S. war-culture, sacrifice, and salvation

U.S. War-culture, Sacrifice and Salvation by Kelly Denton-Borhaug. Equinox Publishing, 2011. Paper, viii + 279 pages, $29.95. ISBN: 9781845537111Many peace educators have struggled with pervasiveness of war and violence in this world. Too often it seems that, in popular consciousness, unchallenged assumption is that this pervasiveness translates into a situation where violence becomes a necessary and natural means to fight fire with fire. According to biblical theologian, Walter Wink, this response is underlain by a false belief in of redemptive violence, briefly that violence can save and bring about peace. In present volume, Kelly Denton-Borhaug convincingly shows that U.S. war culture is buttressed by this belief. In particular, she draws our attention to how a discourse of necessity of sacrifice, both in terms of military service and ways of understanding Jesus' death on cross, reinforce each other in U.S. context, monopolistically serving to quell dissenting and alternative positions.In forming her argument, Denton-Borhaug provides many examples that show how militarism is connected not only to industry in United States, but also to film, video gaming, education, and other aspects of culture. She also cites predominance of a penal substitution model of atonement in popular Christianity. Namely, this model is centered on view that to open a path for salvation, Jesus needed to die for us in order to pay a debt (or serve penalty) that was required as a matter of justice because of human sin. Here, Denton-Borhaug makes link with way soldiers' deaths have been explained throughout U.S. history as a necessary sacrifice, in order to protect freedom at home (in particular) and abroad. Not only are war and death of U.S. soldiers required outcomes within this framing but deaths of enemy combatants and civilians in theatre of combat also become necessary. The absence of loved ones serving or dying abroad is also often represented within language of necessary sacrifice. Additionally, massive military budgets are justified in similar terms, even as social programming is cut or ill-funded in favor of the needs national security.The end result of these intersections, perhaps not surprisingly, given an all-volunteer army, is that it is those on margins of U.S. society who most often pay highest cost of military culture. Bearing brunt of an unequally shared sacrifice are representatives of lowest socio-economic groups who are disproportionately represented in terms of U.S. casualties in Afghanistan and Iraq even as those same groups are squeezed by lack of a wider social safety net at home. At same time, military contractors grow wealthy and those who directly choose to send troops into war remain aloof from immediate dangers of armed conflict. Lest some might be tempted to think that rhetoric and effects of myth of sacrifice are problems particular to one side on political divide in United States, Denton-Borhaug cites both Republican and Democratic use of sacrificial language when praising dead soldiers' valor, justifying necessity of particular wars, and acknowledging sacrifice of loved ones via images of homes with empty chairs at dinner table. …

Prehistoric Societies on the Northern Frontiers of China: Archaeological Perspectives on Identity Formation and Economic Change during the First Millennium BCE by Gideon Shelach (review)

Reviewed by: Prehistoric Societies on the Northern Frontiers of China: Archaeological Perspectives on Identity Formation and Economic Change during the First Millennium BCE by Gideon Shelach Rowan Flad Prehistoric Societies on the Northern Frontiers of China: Archaeological Perspectives on Identity Formation and Economic Change during the First Millennium BCE. Gideon Shelach. London: Equinox Publishing Ltd., 2009. ix + 203 pp. This new book builds on more than 15 years of Gideon Shelach’s archaeological field research in the Chifeng area of Eastern Inner Mongolia. He previously investigated social and political changes during the Late Prehistoric and early historic periods of this area (Shelach 1999). Here, however, Shelach expands his geographical scope to cover the entire steppe region across China’s northern frontier, the so-called “Northern Zone.” He focuses on explaining the process by which an apparent dichotomy emerged from the [End Page 134] second to first millennia b.c.e. between pastoral groups in the steppe regions and agricultural societies to the south. He first argues that there was a great deal more diversity in economic practices among groups in the steppe areas than this dichotomy suggests. In fact, Shelach argues, the transition to pastoralism in the steppe was gradual and sometimes incomplete. Shelach then proposes that the distinctions that developed between these broad regions were “ethnic-like” in the sense that they were the result of emergent social identities rather than economic activities. The emergent steppe identity was based on the conscious use of symbols at a local scale, which both emphasized long-distance interactions and explicitly distinguished steppe societies from the Chinese states to the south. Shelach constructs his argument over the course of four chapters. He begins with an overview of changes that occurred across the Northern Zone between 1100 and 600 b.c.e. (chapter 2). He then considers evidence for change in economic and political processes (chapter 3), the use of symbols related to identity (chapter 4), and interaction at various local, regional, and global scales (chapter 5). Throughout these chapters he provides an excellent summary of archaeological evidence from across his region of interest. This summary will be a useful resource for other scholars interested in this area. This book is written for a relatively specialist audience and assumes some familiarity with East Asian history and geography. For example, although Shelach often uses names of Chinese provinces for geographical orientation, the map provided does not include provincial boundaries nor do other figures in the book. Shelach may have deliberately left off these borders to make the point that modern political boundaries often obscure ancient patterns of similarity or difference (Falkenhausen 1995), but consequently the maps are less useful as a reference tool for those not already familiar with the locations of Chinese provinces. In general, the figures in the book are disappointing, particularly when compared to the excellent quality of the text. For example, the book’s first figure (the aforementioned map, Figure 2.1) is included in a color plate section in the middle of the book, which makes it a little difficult to find. This line map of Northern East Asia includes the national borders of Russia, Mongolia, and China; across the middle it has a color-scale Digital Elevation Model (DEM) to show the topography of the Northern Zone. The map is unprojected so it exaggerates east–west distances in the northern latitudes relative to those in the southern part of the map. This makes the scale bar on the map misleading. It is not clear why the topography provided by the DEM is necessary, since it is mostly not referred to in the text and many of the sites and other geographical referents used in the text (such as province locations or the position of the Great Wall) are not included on the map. These factors, as well as somewhat sloppy placement of river names and unnecessarily thick national borders result in a figure that is not very helpful in orienting the reader. One of only two other maps in the book — Figure 4.9 — is also not ideal since the (again unnecessary) topography is too dark and obscures the site locations, a problem because the site locations are the...

Dawn of the Metal Age: Technology and Society during the Levantine Chalcolithic, London: Equinox Publishing Ltd., 2010. xviii + 234 pages, 47 figures, 12 tables. Cloth. $100.00. [Distributed in North America by The David Brown Book Company] Jonathan M. Golden.

<i>Dawn of the Metal Age: Technology and Society during the Levantine Chalcolithic</i>, London: Equinox Publishing Ltd., 2010. xviii + 234 pages, 47 figures, 12 tables. Cloth. $100.00. [Distributed in North America by The David Brown Book Company] Jonathan M. Golden.

Review: Hasan, R. (2009) Semantic Variation: Meaning in Society and in Sociolinguistics. Equinox Publishing Ltd. xiv + 484 pp.

Review: Hasan, R. (2009) Semantic Variation: Meaning in Society and in Sociolinguistics. Equinox Publishing Ltd. xiv + 484 pp.

Hasan, R. (2009) Semantic Variation: Meaning in Society and in Sociolinguistics. Equinox Publishing Ltd. xiv + 484 pp.

Hasan, R. (2009) Semantic Variation: Meaning in Society and in Sociolinguistics. Equinox Publishing Ltd. xiv + 484 pp.

Three Key Thinkers in the Study of Religion

Key Thinkers in the Study of Religion, series editor Steven Engler. London, UK; Oakville, CT: Equinox Publishing.&#x0D; &#x0D; The three texts considered in this review article are part of a series on important contributors to the study of religion. The series is aimed at providing an in-depth overview of the careers and influences of particular thinkers, before going on to engage critically with each author’s work.&#x0D; &#x0D; Lévi-Strauss on Religion: The Structuring Mind, by Paul-François Tremlett. Equinox Publishing, 2008, 132pp. Pb. £14.99/$24.95, ISBN-13: 9781845532789; Hb £45.00/$65.00, ISBN-13: 9781845532772.&#x0D; &#x0D; Dumont on Religion: Difference, Comparison, Transgression, by Ivan Strenski. London, UK: Equinox Publishing, 2008. 192pp., Pb. £14.99/$24.95, ISBN-13: 9781845532741; Hb. £45.00/$65.00, ISBN-13: 9781845532734.&#x0D; &#x0D; Derrida on Religion: Thinker of Difference, by Dawne McCane. London, UK: Equinox Publishing, 2009. 160pp., Pb. £14.99/$24.95, ISBN-13: 9781845532765; Hb £45.00/$65.00, ISBN-13: 9781845532758.

Curt Rice and Sylvia Blaho (eds.) (2009). Modeling ungrammaticality in Optimality Theory. (Advances in Optimality Theory.) London &amp; Oakville, Conn.: Equinox Publishing. Pp. v+297.

Curt Rice and Sylvia Blaho (eds.) (2009). Modeling ungrammaticality in Optimality Theory. (Advances in Optimality Theory.) London &amp; Oakville, Conn.: Equinox Publishing. Pp. v+297. - Volume 28 Issue 1

Mark Evans, Open Up the Doors: Music in the Modern Church (Oakville, CT: Equinox Publishing, 2006). xi + 209 pp. $90.00 hardback; $27.95 paper.

Mark Evans, Open Up the Doors: Music in the Modern Church (Oakville, CT: Equinox Publishing, 2006). xi + 209 pp. $90.00 hardback; $27.95 paper.

Japanese Mythology: Hermeneutics on Scripture (review)

Reviewed by: Japanese Mythology: Hermeneutics on Scripture Torquil Duthie Japanese Mythology: Hermeneutics on Scripture. By Jun'ichi Isomae. Translated by Mukund Subramanian. London & Oakville, CT: Equinox Publishing, 2010. 192192 pages. Hardcover £60.00/$99.95; softcover £19.99/$34.95. Isomae Jun'ichi is an astute and prolific scholar who has written on a wide variety of topics ranging from the Jōmon period and imperial mythology early in his career to modern Shinto and the disciplinary category of Japanese religion, and, more recently, twentieth-century nationalism and Marxism. This book is based on a collection of essays that were first published in Japanese journals between 1991 and 1997 and then as a book called Kiki shinwa no metahisutorī (Yoshikawa Kōbunkan, 1998). Three of the essays were previously translated into English (chapters 3, 5, and 6) and published as journal articles between 1999 and 2004. Japanese Mythology is the result of retranslating these three articles, translating the two remaining chapters from Kiki shinwa no metahisutorī (chapters 2 and 4), and retranslating an article originally published in Japanese in 2002 and in English as an encyclopedia entry in 2004 (chapter 1). The introduction to the book draws on the brief introduction to Kiki shinwa no metahisutorī, but for the most part has been newly written and translated. The main topic of the book is how the Kojiki and Nihon shoki have been interpreted in different historical periods. Isomae refers to these two texts with the modern shorthand term "kiki" 記紀. The expression "Kiki mythology" usually invokes an understanding of the various mythical accounts collected in the Kojiki and Nihon shoki as variations on what was originally a single myth. Isomae's use of the term, however, takes into account Kōnoshi Takamitsu's argument in Kojiki no sekaikan (Yoshikawa Kōbunkan, 1986) that the Kojiki and the main text of the Nihon shoki are in fact different myths and articulate different worldviews. His "kiki" therefore does not refer to a unitary "Japanese mythology" but to a cluster of imperial myths and legends that constantly shifted over time. Given that the essays included in Japanese Mythology were written at different times, there is a fair amount of repetition throughout the book. It is unfortunate that the first chapter, which was the last to be written and outlines the history of myth interpretation, presents the sophisticated arguments that are detailed in the rest of the book in a somewhat reductive form that does not do them justice. Most puzzling is the description of "the foundational myth" of the Kojiki and Nihon shoki (pp. 19-20), which mixes elements of the two texts and could easily be confused for a traditional "pre-Konoshi" unitary mythology. One of Isomae's most interesting arguments is his explanation for why so many different myths concerning the divine origins of the imperial family developed around the same basic figures and themes prior to the compilation of the Kojiki and Nihon shoki. In chapter 2 ("The Canon and Variants: An Examination of the Mythology of Susanowo"), he suggests that this [End Page 335] occurred because the various uji lineages were all committed to the legitimacy of the state (hence the basic common motifs and mythical characters), but differed according to each of their own political and genealogical interests (hence the multiple variations). The Kojiki and Nihon shoki are, according to Isomae, the result of this variegated mythology being "canonized" by Tenmu's new imperial order. While the Kojiki text presents itself as the one authentic version of events, the Nihon shoki includes multiple variant accounts but subordinates them to an official main text. The compilation of both texts represented a kind of centralization of mythology and history in which the Kojiki and Nihon shoki (especially the latter) became the official standard by which the various lineages legitimated their own familial myths and histories in the late Nara and Heian periods. This is the case, for instance, with texts such as the Takahashi Ujibumi (789) and the Kogoshūi (807), in which the Inbe and Takahashi lineages produced mythological and historical accounts that chronicled the history of their lineages' service to the court and thus advocated for the legitimacy of...

Michel Despland, . Bastide on Religion: The Invention of Candomblé. Key Thinkers in the Study of Religion. London and Oakville, CT: Equinox Publishing, 2008. x+147 pp. $65.00 (cloth); $24.95 (paper).Terry Rey, . Bourdieu on Religion: Imposing Faith and Legitimacy. Key Thinkers in the Study of Religion. London and Oakville, CT: Equinox Publishing, 2007. xii+181 pp. $65.00 (cloth); $24.95 (paper).Paul‐François Tremlett,

Michel Despland, . <i>Bastide on Religion: The Invention of Candomblé</i>. Key Thinkers in the Study of Religion. London and Oakville, CT: Equinox Publishing, 2008. x+147 pp. $65.00 (cloth); $24.95 (paper).Terry Rey, . <i>Bourdieu on Religion: Imposing Faith and Legitimacy</i>. Key Thinkers in the Study of Religion. London and Oakville, CT: Equinox Publishing, 2007. xii+181 pp. $65.00 (cloth); $24.95 (paper).Paul‐François Tremlett,

Just Past? The Making of Israeli Archaeology. By Raz Kletter. London: Equinox Publishing, 2006. Pp. xix + 362 + 34 figs. $50.

<i>Just Past? The Making of Israeli Archaeology</i>. By Raz Kletter. London: Equinox Publishing, 2006. Pp. xix + 362 + 34 figs. $50.

Mots, fréquence et réseaux dans le discours politique. Analyse lexicométrique, méthode et illustration dans deux corpus de textes européens [Words, frequency and networks in political discourse: lexicometric analysis in two corpora of European texts

Although the lexicometry bases itself on a classic way of scientific reasoning (contextualisation of the data, round trips between data, outcome and hypotheses), it is again little used in political sciences in the analysis of the political discourses. To assure better its dissemination, this article returns on its main tools and the scientific predicates of this method. It illustrates then its heuristic strength by showing through examples of analysis of two corpuses of texts produced by the European Union the interest of a reading forced by the focus on the lexicon seen as ‘networks of words’. Specifically when texts seem to be ‘neutral’.

Review: Smart, Graham (2006). Writing the Economy: Activity, Genre, and Technology in the World of Banking. London: Equinox Publishing

Review: Smart, Graham (2006). Writing the Economy: Activity, Genre, and Technology in the World of Banking. London: Equinox Publishing

Book Review: Writing the Economy: Activity, Genre and Technology in the World of Banking, by Graham Smart. Oakville, CT: Equinox Publishing Ltd., 2006. 266 pp., index

Book Review: Writing the Economy: Activity, Genre and Technology in the World of Banking, by Graham Smart. Oakville, CT: Equinox Publishing Ltd., 2006. 266 pp., index

Mortuary Ritual and Society in Bronze Age Cyprus. By Priscilla Keswani. Monographs in Mediterranean Archaeology. London and Oakville, Conn.: Equinox Publishing, 2004. Pp. xiii + 257 + 18 figs. + 38 tables + 2 maps. $125.

Mortuary Ritual and Society in Bronze Age Cyprus. By Priscilla Keswani. Monographs in Mediterranean Archaeology. London and Oakville, Conn.: Equinox Publishing, 2004. Pp. xiii + 257 + 18 figs. + 38 tables + 2 maps. $125.

Writing the Economy: Activity, Genre, and Technology in the World of Banking

Writing the Economy: Activity, Genre, and Technology in the World of Banking by Graham Smart. London: Equinox Publishing Ltd., 2006, 260 pp. Reviewed by Andrea Olinger University of California, Los Angeles A study of discourse practices at the Bank of Canada, Writing the Economy is an important contribution to our understanding of how banks use written and oral genres, as well as other technologies, to create knowledge, set policy, and communicate with the public. Graham Smart spent thirteen years working for the Bank of Canada as an in-house writing consultant and trainer, and this ethnography is the result of over two decades of research (1984-2005). His data include interviews with Bank employees up and down the hierarchy and with economists outside the Bank, presentations at in-house writing seminars and orientation sessions, reviews of internal and published documents, and field notes. Integrated throughout the book are excerpts from nearly 100 interviews. Readers with limited knowledge of banking and economics need not shy away from this book: Smart is careful to define all economic terms and concepts, and he includes an appendix that presents the Neo-Classical and Neo-Keynesian views of how economies work, critiques of each view and of mainstream economics, and a discussion of where the Bank of Canada’s ideology fits. The book’s definition of genre comes from an article Smart wrote with An- thony Pare: “[A] written genre can be seen as a broad rhetorical strategy enacted within an [organization] in order to regularize writer/reader transactions in ways that allow for the creation of particular knowledge” (Pare & Smart, 1994, p.146, qtd. in Smart, 2006, pp. 11-12). Pare and Smart define genres as regularities not only in texts (e.g., press releases and the Bank of Canada Annual Report) but also in the production and interpretation of texts and in patterns of interaction around texts. Smart broadens the definition of genre to include oral genres such as press conferences and lunch meetings. Chapter 1 lays out the book’s theoretical background, which includes genre theory, activity theory, distributed cognition, situated learning, inscription, and theories of intertextuality and interdiscursivity, among others. Chapter 2 provides an overview of the three-part monetary-policy process that defines the Bank’s work: (1) creating knowledge about the economy (through conducting research and using existing research to analyze what is happening in the economy), (2) making policy decisions (e.g., adjusting interest rates), and (3) communicating research and policies to external groups such as the media, the government, and Issues in Applied Linguistics © 2008, Regents of the University of California ISSN 1050-4273 Vol. 16 No. 1, 85-87

Jazz Visions: Reflections on Lennie Tristano and His Legacy. By Peter Ind. London: Equinox Publishing, 2005.

Jazz Visions: Reflections on Lennie Tristano and His Legacy. By Peter Ind. London: Equinox Publishing, 2005.

Archaeology, Anthropology and Cult: The Sanctuary at Gilat, Israel:Archaeology, Anthropology and Cult: The Sanctuary at Gilat, Israel

Archaeology, Anthropology and Cult: The Sanctuary at Gilat, Israel. Thomas E. Levy, ed. Oakville, CT: Equinox Publishing, 2006. 875 pp.

Thomas E Levy, Thomas Higham, editors. The Bible and Radiocarbon Dating: Archaeology, Text and Science. 2005. London: Equinox Publishing Ltd. 450 pages. ISBN: 1845530578. $39.95 US paperback, $135 US cloth.

Thomas E Levy, Thomas Higham, editors. The Bible and Radiocarbon Dating: Archaeology, Text and Science. 2005. London: Equinox Publishing Ltd. 450 pages. ISBN: 1845530578. $39.95 US paperback, $135 US cloth.