Introductory Matter Research Articles

The BBNJ preamble: More than just window dressing

This article reflects upon the preambular paragraphs of the Agreement under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (LOSC) for the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction (BBNJ Agreement) and considers the functions and role of this introductory matter. During the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea, the delegate for Colombia, Mr Charry Samper concluded that the LOSC preamble works effectively because it includes the purposes, the principles and the philosophy of the Convention. The three P’s. This article examines the three P’s in the BBNJ context and undertakes a critical analysis of the preamble in the BBNJ Agreement to ascertain whether it encapsulates and underscores the purposes, principles and philosophy that lie behind the development of the instrument.

A Brief Comparative Analysis of Two Bilingual Dictionaries of Islamic Finance and Economy

With the growth of Islamic banking and new research into Islamic economy, the need to investigate related Islamic terms in these fields has become very important for concerned bodies. To date, there has not been adequate research to shed light on bilingual dictionaries on Islamic finance and economy. Two bilingual dictionaries (Arabic –English) that have a substantial number of entries on Islamic finance and economy terms (IFETs) are Mu'jam Lughat Al Fuqahā' (‘Dictionary of Islamic Legal Terminology’) (1988) and ISRA Compendium for Islamic Finance Terms (2010). The current paper aims to provide a brief comparative analysis of some salient aspects with regard to the introductory matter, main content and appendixes of these two specialized, bilingual dictionaries. It also attempts to investigate whether a certain set of randomly selected IFETs are included in the two selected dictionaries to generally gauge the extent of the semantic content of these dictionaries. For those involved in work related to Islamic finance and economy like translators, researchers, students and other professionals in the field, the analysis here will bring to awareness the extent of the usefulness of these two dictionaries by highlighting their merits and demerits. The study concludes by making recommendations for improvements that can be made to future bilingual dictionary publications dealing with IFETs.

Yosano Akiko in Belle Époque Paris / ベル・エポックのパリの与謝野晶子

Yosano Akiko (1878–1942), a significant modern Japanese poet, spent some five months in Europe in 1912. While she was in Paris, her presence in the city caused such a stir among Japanese expatriates that several French newspapers ran articles about her. In the main, those articles depicted Akiko as a feminist inasmuch as they quoted her views on the situations of women in France and Japan. The last of those articles, which appeared in Les Annales politiques et littéraires, a weekly magazine, included an introduction explaining Akiko's importance by the article's author, Léon Faraut (dates unknown). That introductory matter presented a handful of French translations of Akiko's verse, both tanka and shintaishi (new-style poetry)—some of the earliest European-language renderings of her work. The present article is a translation of Faraut's article, following a short preface.

A REVIEW OF AN ISLAMIC FINANCIAL DICTIONARY

Islamic banking has seen a lot of progress and attracted global attention. It has also attracted multiple studies and research. Lexicography has been part of the areas touched upon by research to provide the necessary tools to comprehend terms and concepts related to Islamic financial terminology. Having said that, the inadequacy of the studies and works has shown an area that awaits further improvement and investigation. Thus, the current paper aims to provide a brief review of a dictionary called Dictionary of Financial and Economic Terms in the Register of Jurists by Nazih Hammad (2008). The introductory matter, content, and structure are analysed in comparison to lexicographic works. Finally, recommendations are made to improve similar works.

The Expanding Art of Comics: Ten Modern Masterpieces by Thierry Groensteen

Reviewed by: The Expanding Art of Comics: Ten Modern Masterpieces by Thierry Groensteen Colin Beineke (bio) Thierry Groensteen. The Expanding Art of Comics: Ten Modern Masterpieces. Translated by Ann Miller. University Press of Mississippi, 2017. xii + 240 pp, $65, $30. Click for larger view View full resolution Thierry Groensteen and his colleagues in France and Belgium were polishing theories and practices of comics formalism in the 1980s which North American criticism has only recently begun to hew of its own accord. During my early years as a graduate student, I more than once referred to Groensteen's The System of Comics1 as "my Bible" when recommending it to others—positioning it as the key to unlocking nuanced formal close reading—and although I have since reined in my dogmatic enthusiasm, the experience of reading comics alongside Groensteen remains invigorating and enlightening. Few comics scholars have such a keen eye for spotting the underlying patterns of the form while also possessing the clarity of voice to expound upon them. Groensteen's standard critical approach draws descriptive theory from a wide body of comics rather than imposing a pre-ordained framework upon a specific few, a process that remains refreshing in a humanities dominated by ideological methodologies. However, Groensteen's third book to be translated and published by the University of Mississippi Press, The Expanding Art of Comics: Ten Modern Masterpieces, represents a departure from his rigorously theoretical works: The System of Comics and Comics and Narration.2 A series of discrete examinations tackling ten so-called comics "masterpieces," The Expanding Art offers English readers, for the first time, extended Groensteenian readings [End Page 213] of major works. Originally published in Belgium by Les Impressions Nouvelles—a house founded by Marc Avelot, Benoît Peeters, and Jan Baetens, and whose catalog is aimed at a popular readership—The Expanding Art might be considered a companion to Groensteen's previous Impressions Nouvelles book, Comics: A User's Guide (La bande dessinée, mode d'emploi),3 which is framed explicitly as a beginners-styled introduction to the art form. The Expanding Art, then, serves as a practical application of the theoretical basics outlined in A User's Guide. Pulled from this Franco-Belgian framework of general readership, The Expanding Art is placed staunchly within an American academic milieu, a transition resulting in moments of dissonance. Groensteen's prose is admittedly more accessible here than in his strictly theoretical work, while his overall approach leans towards explication and review rather than deep critique and analysis; yet his intermittent use of jargon, as well as his frequent off-hand references to specialized critics and practitioners, suggests an informed readership. Given this tension, the best course of action may not be to evaluate The Expanding Art using either set of standards—the popular or the academic—but via the criteria Groensteen himself outlines for the project. In deliberate contrast to the popular ideation of beeline evolutionary progress, Groensteen—in a mere four pages of introductory matter—argues for a more nuanced conceptualization of flowering expansion within the comics field: a shrewd pivot from a linear trajectory of "progress," often associated with the overblown narrative of comics' "growing up," to an outward branching outgrowth. Rather than highlight texts which represent some imagined, recently acquired apex of the form, Groensteen instead posits an examination of works that have pushed comics in radically novel directions: "Each of these books has created an opening, achieved a breakthrough, offered a new narrative model, or taken up an emerging tendency and perfected it" (3). For instance, Groensteen argues that Dominique Goblet's Pretending Is Lying represents an expansion into the visual arts, while Chris Ware's Building Stories signals a move towards comics as a "book-art object" (4). Considering this alternative framework, it is surprising to note that the comics Groensteen ultimately selects—including Alison Bechdel's Fun Home, David B.'s Epileptic, and Craig Thompson's Habibi—could have been easily assembled using the model of progressive evolution he attempts to subvert, especially given that, for many, the "graphic novel" represents the most recent acme of the comics form. And indeed, for all his claims of expansion, Groensteen ultimately...

‘A Brief Discourse of Rebellion and Rebels’ by George North: A Newly Uncovered Manuscript Source for Shakespeare's Plays. By Dennis McCarthy and June Schlueter

One surprising consequence of the digital revolution has been the expansion of early modern manuscript studies. As so many printed works in the English vernaculars have been made available through such resources as Early English Books Online, enterprising scholars of various sorts have sought to distinguish themselves by drawing attention to materials that cannot readily be read and/or word-searched by the common herd. The title under review, the most substantial portion of which comprises a facsimile and modernized transcription of George north's ‘A brief discourse of rebellion and Rebells’ (British Library Add. MS 70520), seems at first blush to be a case in point. However, to read the nearly 100 pages of introductory matter is quickly to disabuse oneself of this impression. The authors/editors are Dennis McCarthy and June Schlueter. McCarthy is an independent scholar who in 2011 self-published North of Shakespeare: The True Story of the Secret Genius who Wrote the World's Greatest Body of Literature. Here he proposes that Sir Thomas North, the famous translator of Plutarch, was responsible for writing much of what we now think of as Shakespeare's corpus. Schlueter is a retired professor of English Literature who has published widely on twentieth-century drama and who has also produced a richly illustrated study of alba amicorum in ‘Shakespeare's London’.

Geste des Bretuns en alexandrins, ou, Harley Brut. Édition critique par Beatrice Barbieri

The substantial fragments of an Anglo-Norman Brut in London, BL, MS Harley 1605a1 (its Merlin prophecies also preserved in Lincoln, Cathedral Library 104, and London, BL, MS Add. 45103) have long stood in need of an edition. Hitherto, only the prophecies and the fifth fragment of the Brut have been edited. In her Introduction, Beatrice Barbieri provides excellent codicological descriptions of the manuscripts before proceeding to analyse carefully the complex of translations and adaptations of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Regum Britanniae into medieval insular French. She establishes the precise version of the Historia used by the anonymous author of what she now calls the Geste des Bretuns, a title that reflects the nature of the text better than the traditional ‘Harley Brut’. Barbieri then goes on to examine the stylistic features of the work, which situate it interestingly in the orbit of the chanson de geste. The use of parallel laisses, clichés, and formulaic expressions all lend an epic air to the 3449 surviving alexandrines, which probably constitute about a quarter of the original text. Given the early date of the Geste (second half of the twelfth century, probably after 1170), the alexandrines may be considered precocious. Another noticeable feature of the Geste is its increased emphasis on Arthur’s standing through modifications and additions to the narrative of events during his reign, the purpose of which may be to elevate Arthur to the status of Alexander. The hermetic and obscure nature of the Merlin prophecies rendered them difficult to translate, although they were still considered interesting, and perhaps enigmatic, enough to circulate separately in the Lincoln and Additional manuscripts. Barbieri’s introductory matter includes the usual sections on previous editions, manuscript relations, language and versification, and explanation of editorial principles. The text itself is impeccably edited, with rejected readings and variants at the foot of the page (where they should be) and an asterisk indicating the presence of a note after the text. A glossary, bibliography, and indices of proper names and places complete the volume. It is not clear why the bibliography has been placed between the glossary and the two indices rather than at the end of the Introduction. Despite the relative brevity of the surviving witnesses, the Geste des Bretuns assumes a significant place in the tradition of the vernacular Brut. Specialists in Anglo-Norman and Arthurian literature will welcome this addition to the corpus of accessible texts. They will also be grateful that this interesting work has benefited from the attention of someone well trained in the Italian philological tradition. Rumours of the death of editing may have been exaggerated, but our university authorities and those who presume to evaluate research still need reminding that critical editions can make serious and worthwhile contributions to scholarship.

The Incorporation of Specialised Data in Lexicographical Meaning Explanations: A Discussion Based on Sports and Fitness Terms

There is a problematic treatment of field specific words in both general language dictionaries as well as specialised dictionaries, which in this paper is exemplified using the sports and fitness subject fields as the point of departure and focusing on meaning explanations. Particu­larly the treatment in general dictionaries in many cases results in inadequate solutions that cannot sufficiently accommodate the dictionary users' needs if we consider these from the viewpoint of the function theory, according to which a dictionary is designed to help a specific user type with a punctual information need that has occurred in a specific type of extra-lexicographical user situa­tion. In this study, a total of 44 general and specialised information tools in English and Danish were analysed. The first part of the investigation involved an analysis of the introductory matter to determine the intended user situation(s) and user(s) of each tool. In the second part, a selected number of sports and/or fitness related lemmata in the dictionaries were analysed. These test words and their meaning explanations were in each dictionary compared to the dictionary's men­tioned user situation(s) and user(s). Based on this comparison, a number of identified problems with the meaning explanations are discussed, and a set of principles for best practice when pro­ducing meaning explanations of specialised terms is suggested. The study revealed that quite a number of these information tools either do not clearly specify their functions or, to some extent, cannot live up to their intended functions. Some additional interesting findings were also made as some of the dictionaries either explicitly or implicitly are designed with operative and interpreta­tive functions, which are functions that have yet not been fully incorporated into lexicographical theory. The overall findings from the study have led to a suggested function-based definition of meaning explanations to be applied in all types of information tools.

Fír Flathemon in the Russian Primary Chronicle? The Legend of the Summoning of the Varangians and the Prefatory Matter to Audacht Morainn

The legend of the summoning of the Varangians as presented in different versions of the Russian Primary Chronicle (also known as Povest' Vremennykh Let) provided a matter for hot debates among the students of Russian history: to some of them it seemed to present a proof that Eastern Slavic peoples found themselves unable to establish a reliable state to settle their disputes. The idea of an orderly government had to be imported from Scandinavia with the rulers themselves. This discussion, however, seemed to come to an end in the 1990s when a new approach to the analysis of this section of the RPC was introduced. Russian scholars Ye. Mel'nikova and V. Petrukhin proposed to treat the Varangian-summoning legend not as a historical source, but as a literary tale (analogical to the opening parts of Res gestae saxonicae by Widukind of Corvey or Heimskringla by Snorri Sturluson) the main purpose of which was to explain the aetiology of the Russian statehood. In the end Mel'nikova and Petrukhin suggest, nevertheless, that this tale could have had a genuine historical core—the treaty (r'ad) established between Varangian rulers and their Slavic subjects regulating their mutual rights and duties. However, not mentioned in their paper is the closest parallel to the RPC-legend, the Irish tale of the killing of noble lineages of Ireland and their subsequent return to the island, as it is set forth in the late-Old-Irish historical poem Sóerchlanda Érenn uile. This poem which, accompanied by a prose setting, serves in some manuscripts as introductory matter to Audacht Morainn shows the effects of the lack of fír flathemon on peoples not having a proper ruler. The striking resemblance between this tale and the Varangian legend in the RPC gives us an opportunity to reconsider the motif structure and the ideological purport of the latter: the establishment of r'ad may probably be seen not as an account of a historical fact ornamented with some wandering motifs but as a wandering (or inherited) motif itself, and the main purpose of this tale could have been not to provide an aetiology for the Russian statehood, but to show the importance of having a ruler possesing ‘rightness’ (pravda).

The Role of the Introductory Matter in Bilingual Dictionaries of English and Arabic

Monolingual and bilingual dictionaries for learners of English as foreign language differ from each other in many aspects. Among the differences are the types of information a dictionary provides outside the A–Z word list, especially in its introductory matter. Yet, dictionary introductions have been referred to rather peripherally in the literature on dictionary users and uses. Within the context of lexicographic practice, this study aims to outline the differences between EFL learner's dictionaries and bilingual English–Arabic dictionaries, and to determine to what extent a given set of popular dictionaries provide varied and sufficient information in their introductions. Three categories of dictionaries will be the subject of comparison: EFL dictionaries, European bilingual dictionaries, and bilingual dictionaries in the Arab world. Keywords: bilingual dictionary, introductory matter,English–Arabic, efl learner's dictionary, orientalist dictionary

The role of the introductory matter in bilingual dictionaries of English and Arabic

Monolingual and bilingual dictionaries for learners of English as foreign language differ from each other in many aspects. Among the differences are the types of information a dictionary provides outside the A–Z word list, especially in its introductory matter. Yet, dictionary introductions have been referred to rather peripherally in the literature on dictionary users and uses. Within the context of lexicographic practice, this study aims to outline the differences between EFL learner's dictionaries and bilingual English–Arabic dictionaries, and to determine to what extent a given set of popular dictionaries provide varied and sufficient information in their introductions. Three categories of dictionaries will be the subject of comparison: EFL dictionaries, European bilingual dictionaries, and bilingual dictionaries in the Arab world. Keywords: bilingual dictionary, introductory matter,English–Arabic, efl learner's dictionary, orientalist dictionary

Image and Reality in Plato's Sophist. By David Ambuel

Pp. xvii, 279 , Las Vegas , Parmenides Publishing , 2007 , $32.00 . After introductory matter, this book consists of a thorough commentary on Plato's Sophist, a translation of the dialogue, and then end matter, including a useful appendix in which he argues in more detail against a common view of the dialogue. The commentary is divided into three parts (roughly, on the divisions or the attempted definition of the sophist; on the problem of non-being; and on its solution), and the reader is also helped by frequent section breaks with subheadings. I will say no more about the translation: it is useful to have it in the book, to refer to, but it is plain and literal almost to the point where on occasion it hardly reads like English. Ambuel wants to make two main points. First, contrary to a strong trend in scholarship over the last fifty years, he sees the dialogue as metaphysical rather than logical; that is, it is not merely an exercise in logical division followed by a disambiguation of senses of the verb ‘to be’, but primarily an exploration of forms, entities with real ontological status, and their relationship to the everyday world of particulars. This thesis of Ambuel's is attractive, but it stands or falls with the success or failure of the rest of the book, in which he applies and justifies this insight. I can see no reason why the book cannot be both logical and metaphysical; the two are often hard to distinguish in Plato's dialogues. Ambuel's second main thesis is that, despite appearances, the dialogue is aporetic. Even though it appears to end in certain firm conclusions about ‘to be’ (or about being), Ambuel argues that these conclusions are undermined because the method used to reach them has been patently inadequate. This seems to me to be a hazardous and implausible thesis. Interpretations of Plato's dialogues that promise a revolution are rarely successful; good academic work is more commonly cumulative, building on careful prior work. Ambuel's thesis means, as he freely admits, that, contrary to what all scholars have thought, the Eleatic Stranger does not speak for Plato. In that case, what is the point of the dialogue? Ambuel believes that Plato is asking us to pick up on certain clues, never spotted before by anyone, that show that the dialogue does not have the function it purports to have. These clues are (1) that the method of division practised in the dialogue does not conform to theory and practice of division in other dialogues, specifically because there is no prior collection and because division proceeds only by dichotomy; (2) the sophist is consistently allowed to be a practitioner of a skill, even though elsewhere Plato denies that sophists have skills; (3) that in certain respects the metaphysics of the dialogue does not square with some of Plato's earlier ideas – specifically, in that forms are said to relate to one another (which destroys their singularity), and that images and paradigms are not kept as radically distinct as before. It would take too long to argue against these points in detail; suffice it to say that only strong unitarians would think that Plato could not have changed his mind on any or all of these three points. But if the dialogue does not, then, have the purpose it appears to have, what is its purpose? Ambuel believes it shows that Parmenidean logical tools fail to cope with the subtleties of Platonic metaphysics, particularly because it is bound to blur the distinction between image and paradigm; therefore, the dialogue shows, in this indirect way, the necessity of a firm ontological distinction between image and paradigm. Even though I disagree fundamentally with almost everything Ambuel says, there are things to be grateful for in this book; above all, it is well argued and clearly written. And, just because of its difficulties, Sophist is studied less than many Platonic dialogues: it is good to have a new translation and a thought-provoking book-length commentary.

Resurrecting Dante's Florence: Figural Realism in the Decameron and the Esposizioni

Resurrecting Dante's Florence:Figural Realism in the Decameron and the Esposizioni Kristina Marie Olson Much of Boccaccio's work is heavilyinfluenced by Dante, and near the end ofhis life he both wrote a treatise celebratingDante and delivered a set of lecturescommenting in detail on the first twenty-eight[sic] cantos of the Inferno. Yet theDecameron is an implicitly anti-Dantean work. —Norton Anthology of World Literature So reads the introductory matter to selections from the Decameron in the Norton Anthology to World Literature,2 which, after offering preliminary evidence of the relation between these two works (the Decameron's division into one-hundred tales; the pedigree of "prencipe Galeotto" from Inferno V), summarily dismisses any sustained similarities between the two works in favor of a rhetorical opposition. As incorrect as this classification may seem, the critical tradition of Italian studies forged this rhetoric before any misgivings within the marketplace of World Literature. At the end of the nineteenth century, Francesco de Sanctis called the Decameron the "nuova Commedia, non la 'divina,' ma la 'terrestre' Commedia."3 Much later, Erich Auerbach made claims about [End Page 45] Boccaccio's realism and the historical content of the Decameron4 that were eventually challenged by the work of Vittore Branca:5 Il capolavoro del Boccaccio, invece, proprio perché appare nei suoi aspetti più costituzionali e più validi come la tipica "commedia dell'uomo" rappresenta attraverso i paradigmi canonici alla visione cristiana e scolastica della vita e insieme come una vasta e multiforme epopea della società medievale italiana colta e ritratta nel suo autunno splendido e lussureggiante, non si oppone alla Divina Commedia ma in qualche modo le si affianca e quasi la completa. (Branca 29) But despite Branca's efforts, a relative lack of formal and historical comparative analysis of these two capolavori continues to exist. Though Carlo Delcorno established that Boccaccio was familiar with Dante's works by 1350, and echoes of Dante's verse have been discerned in the Elegia di madonna Fiammetta, the Caccia di Diana, the Amorosa visione and the Corbaccio,6 studies of Dante's presence in the Decameron have truly emerged in the late twentieth century with the work of Bettinzoli, Hollander, and Kirkham.7 Yet the presence of nearly verbatim passages in the Decameron and the Esposizioni requires us, I believe, to reconsider the nature of the influence of the Commedia on the [End Page 46] Decameron and the chronological terms of Boccaccio's engagement with Dante's work. Appearing in Decameron I.8, VI.9, and IX.8 and in the text of the later Esposizioni, these "autocitations" not only imply that Boccaccio kept the Commedia in mind while writing the Decameron, but that he himself intended that certain of the hundred novelle be read as a "gloss" of Dante's poem.8 Interestingly enough, it is one of Boccaccio's works that explicitly bears witness to his deep knowledge of the Commedia as a source for textual analogues to the Decameron. The collection of Boccaccio's incomplete public lectures on Inferno I to XVII, commonly called the Comento but referred to by Giorgio Padoan as the Esposizioni sopra la Comedia di Dante (October 1373–January 1374), often enters into the margins of work on Boccaccio as dantista but have seldom solicited the exclusive treatments such as those mentioned.9 The Esposizioni, the first lectura Dantis offered to the people of Florence in the church of Santo Stefano in Badia, most conspicuously demonstrates Boccaccio's close reading of Dante's text, though it is an unfinished work (and most likely not the exact content of the public lectures). To consider these autocitations in the Decameron and the Esposizioni within their Dantean cornice and their interpretation of the changes in Florentine society depicted in the Commedia, a view of Boccaccio as storyteller, chronicler and social commentator emerges, one that should lead to further reconsiderations of his classification in respect to his formidable processor. While the almost verbatim nature of these passages is often noted by Giorgio Padoan in his edition of the Esposizioni, and certain critics have also noted parallels between these texts, no one has ventured to interpret their...

Vetus Latina: Die Reste der Altlateinischen Bibel, 4/5 Ruth. Edited by Bonifatia Gesche. Pp. 83. Freiburg: Verlag Herder, 2005. isbn 3451001322. Paper n.p.

For the Old Latin of Ruth we are dependent on the tenth-century MS 109 in Madrid and on the commentary by Claudius of Tours (ninth century) plus a few citations in Ambrose. Discussions about the figure of the Moabitess occur in Latin patristic writings but few fathers ever quote from Ruth, nor is there anything significant in Latin liturgical texts. Nevertheless, as a consequence of this limited material Bonifatia Gesche, a sister at Mariendonk Abbey, has been able to complete the introductory matter and the text with apparatus in one normal-sized fascicle of Vetus Latina. Typically, one finds half a verse of the biblical text per page in this series; for Ruth two or more verses can appear on a page. As well as the line of Greek (Old Latin Ruth seems to be closest to Rahlfs’ R text-type) we have only L = MS 109 and H = the Vulgate, except at 4:12–13 where a citation from Ambrose (using either an OL MS or his own translation of the Greek) replaces 109. The introduction has helpful lists drawn from the apparatus to show (pp. 14–17) the significant differences between the two main Latin texts vis-à-vis the LXX (which are often quite striking, revealing Jerome's free rendering compared with both the LXX and Hebrew); the way in which 109 has treated the LXX (pp. 24–6); and the distinctiveness of the text in Ambrose (pp. 17–19). This is a welcome edition, filling a yawning gap in our knowledge of Old Latin Ruth; it will also be useful in our understanding how certain difficult verses such as 2:7, 17 were treated in antiquity. Diphthong is misspelled on p. 20.

The Neighbors Respond: The Controversy over the Jedwabne Massacre in Poland (review)

Reviewed by: The Neighbors Respond: The Controversy over the Jedwabne Massacre in Poland Zev Garber (bio) The Neighbors Respond: The Controversy over the Jedwabne Massacre in Poland, edited by Anthony Polonsky and Joanna B. Michlic. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2004. 489 pp. $19.95. On June 22, 1941, German forces captured the town of Jedwabne, in the Łomza region in northeastern Poland. Less than three weeks later, on July 10, 1941, the Jewish community of Jedwabne, whose roots go back more than 300 years, was destroyed by local townspeople. With the publication of Sąsiedzi: Historia zaglady ydowskiego miasteczka (Sejny, 2000) and its English translation Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland (Princeton, 2000), Jan Tomasz Gross (Polish émigré, now Professor of Politics and European Studies at New York University) challenged Poles to confront the Polish involvement in the Jedwabne massacre: "[H]ad Jedwabne not been seized by Germans, the Jedwabne Jews would not have been murdered by their neighbors." Gross's thesis elicited a plethora of apologetics and polemics. Many seethed in overt antisemitism and revisionism, and others raised the issue of "Poles as heroes and victims." Remarks from the leadership of the Polish State and Church at the 60th anniversary of the Jedwabne pogrom (July 10, 2001) reflected the intensity and kind of Polish self-criticism: "I apologize on my own behalf and on behalf of those Poles whose consciences have been stirred by that crime, who believe that one cannot be proud of Polish history's greatness without simultaneously feeling pain and shame at the evil committed by Poles against each other" (President Aleksander Kwaśniewski); "Nevertheless, we cannot allow the case of Jedwabne to disseminate false ideas about Poland's co-responsibility for the Holocaust or innate antisemitism in Poland" (Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek); and the absence of Jósef Cardinal Glemp, the Primate of Poland, who "didn't want politicians to tell the Church how it should express its sorrow for crimes committed by some group of its believers." An attempt to understand contested views on the Jedwabne pogrom and its affect on Polish-Jewish relations is the purport of the book under review. Editors A. Polonsky and J. Michlic's Introduction sets the stage for the chapters that follow. They summarize the murky history of Jewish-Polish relationship. Jews began living in Poland in approximately the tenth century. To be sure, individual Jewish communities coexisted tolerably with Poles in "this land of blessed refuge."1 But with the coming of such traumas as the Chmielnicki [End Page 186] massacres of 1648–1649 and all the successive acts of discrimination, fanaticism, ghettoization, persecution, and finally extermination that followed, the deep alienation between Jews and Poles became the foremost means by which these respected groups defined each other. Needless to say, Gross's Neighbors raises the issue of Polish reaction towards mass murder of Jews on Polish soil during World War II in general and in Jedwabne in particular. The editors respond by evaluating Polish national character, identity, and memory thereof and suggest pointed directions to normalize the traumatic Jewish-Polish past. Following the Introduction, the volume is divided into seven parts, with introductory matter provided by the editors, and contributions from Catholic clergy, historians, intellectuals, journalists, and jurists; all are of Polish birth or descent. Parts One and Two speak of initial newspaper reports (A. Kaczyński, G. Szczęsna, M. Kaczyńska) and the ensuing moral debate (Z. Kossak-Szczka, J. Tokarska-Bakir, J. Nowak-Jeziorański, A. Macierewicz, H. Świda-Ziemba, J. Sławomir Mac). Part Three offers a court record (findings of investigation S 1/00/Zn), the opinion of Professor A. Rzepliński (legal advisor to the Institute of National Memory), and official statements from Prime Minister J. Berzek, Minister of Foreign Affairs W. Bartoszewski, and President A. Kwaśniewski on the crime at Jedwabne. Part Four covers the debate in the Catholic Church as presented in the views of Archbishop Henryk Muszyński, Józef Cardinal Glemp, and Rev. S. Musial. Part Five presents a discussion about Jedwabne by inhabitants of Jedwabne, published in the Catholic monthly Więz, April 2001, and M...

Songs of a Kaumatua Sung by Kino Hughes (review)

By example rather than rhetoric, Mervyn McLean and Margaret Orbell have placed decades of scholarship into the service of New Zealand's indigenous Maori communities. Songs of a Kaumatua Sung by Kino Hughes is an eloquent volume of musical transcriptions, lyrics, and commentary that [End Page 686] raises the bar for music editing endeavors. The heart of the volume is a set of sixty songs transcribed in a modified version of Western staff notation. Separate appendices present notes on text sources, and on the songs and transcriptions. Introductory matter includes a biographical sketch of Kino Hughes, historical notes on the Tuhoe people who live along the east coast of New Zealand's North Island, commentary outlining six major categories of song styles—recited (haka,karakia,patere) and sung (oriori,waiata,pao), and notes on transcription methods. Two compact discs packaged with the book present Hughes's own performances of forty-nine of the songs, drawn entirely from McLean's extensive field recordings made in the 1960s and 1970s.

The Jews in Sicily, Volume 2, 1302-1391 (review)

Reviewed by: The Jews in Sicily, Volume 2, 1302–1391 Zev Garber The Jews in Sicily, Volume 2, 1302–1391, by Shlomo Simonsohn. Studia Post-Biblica No. 48.3. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2000. Pp. xiv + 599-1251. Np. The volume under review is the sixteenth in the author’s Documentary History of the Jews in Italy, and the second of four volumes on the Jews of Sicily, covering most of the fourteenth century. The first volume covers epigraphic records from 383 to 1300, and the remaining volumes are planned to cover the last century of Jewish presence on [End Page 175] the largest island in the Mediterranean until the expulsion of the Jews in 1492. Simonsohn, Professor Emeritus of Jewish History at Tel Aviv University, charts known and not so known references and sources from state archives of Barcelona, Trapani, Venice, and particularly Palermo as well as state, local authorities, and notaries. What emerges is an impressive annotated record in Latin on the Jewish economic life in Sicily in the first century of Aragonese rule. The documents suggest that the Jews were well adjusted in Sicilian life. They were indistinguishable from non-Jews in business dealings, and hundreds of notarial deeds suggest equity in taxes, debts, and fines. Records show that Jews were involved in all facets of economic life: blacksmiths, agriculture, merchants, real estate, saddlers, shoemakers, shipping, tanning, trade and business, and the medicinal profession, druggists, doctors, and surgeons. For the most part Jews succeeded economically, but there were special Jew taxes pertaining to Jewish religious rituals or events; e.g., meat tax, wine tax, entertainment tax at rites of passage (birth, wedding), etc. The relationship between the Jews and the Crown and the Church reflect mixed fortune. For example, on 12 March 1321, King Peter II ordered the officials in Marsala to prevent church authorities from exercising jurisdiction over the Jews in Mazara, and nine months later he rescinded his declaration. Also portrayed are examples of Jewish communal self- government and synagogue life. The entries are indexed and organized, and demon strate mastery of the vast documentation involved, with careful attention to primary sources. As mentioned, this volume is part of a work in progress. Consequently, there is no narrative or introductory matter (this is promised in the last volume) to aid in understanding the documents as part of the whole picture. The brief remarks that place each entry in situ help, but they are not sufficient for a generalist. Nonetheless, an important source of sources for researchers of Sicilian Jewry. Zev Garber Jewish Studies Los Angeles Valley College Copyright © 2003 Purdue University

Book Reviews

Book Reviews

Sir Roy Welensky and his archives (Part 2)

So to the catalogue in detail. It is divided into seven parts, topped and tailed by 25pp. of introductory matter and 107pp. of index of personal names and principal subjects.Part 1 contains the bulk of the pre-Federation material. It runs to 103 boxes of which the first nine cover Welensky as Director of Manpower, the Northern Rhodesian Executive Council (mainly commuting death sentences imposed on murderers - or not), the Legislative Council and its committees and the Unofficial Members’ Association and the Liaison Office. Twenty boxes house material relating to boards and committees with which Welensky was involved: Rhodesia Railways (the Board and the Higher Authority), Chilanga Cement Works (a project of the Northern Rhodesian authorities in conjunction with the Colonial Development Corporation; references to a cement pool seem to be to collusive marketing arrangements rather than swimming or the mafia) and the Rhodes Centenary Exhibition (1953) at Bulawayo.

Reflections on five crops

This article contains the substance of an invited address to the Society of Economic Botany. After some introductory autobiographical matter, attention is drawn to five crops, all originating in low latitudes: bananas, potatoes, sugarcane, rubber, oil palm. In most respects they are exceedingly diverse but all five crops present features of interest, outlined under the general headings: systematics, evolution, genetic resource conservation, new crops and economics. The weakness of generalizations about crop evolution is emphasised. More new crops ought, one feels, to be in prospect but probably are not. Explicitly economic aspects of Economic Botany would, it is argued, justify more study than they have had.