Repetition Of Themes Research Articles

Ideals and practicalities of policy co-design – Developing England’s post-Brexit Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes

There are few examples of where co-design has been applied to active policy development on the scale or level of complexity of England’s post-Brexit Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes. ELM offers a fascinating ‘laboratory’ to analyse how co-design at this scale works in practice. This paper offers the first in-depth empirical assessment of the process from the perspectives of both the policy makers and stakeholders who were involved in the initial phase of ELM co-design from 2018 to 2020. Using interview data, we provide critical insights for both academics and government on 'pragmatic' applications of co-design to active policy development and reflect on what this tells us about the wider processes of policy development that may need to change in order to accommodate this more ‘democratic’ approach. Our analysis, which identified key barriers to co-design as articulated by institutional stakeholders and civil servants, revealed a mismatch between the principles and practices of ‘co-design’ in the initial development of ELM. These early-stage challenges included: (i) a lack of shared decision-making and empowering stakeholders to contribute to problem-definitions; (ii) confidentiality requirements that introduced barriers to information-sharing; (iii) insufficient transparency and feedback on what happened to stakeholder’s contributions in terms of policy development; (iv) an absence of detail on the schemes, including proposed approaches, payment rates, advice, baseline measures, the kinds of ‘outcomes’ expected, and monitoring mechanisms; and (v) a repetition of themes that participants had already discussed. Many of these mismatches may be common to other policy arenas. We argue that improved application of policy co-design in government will rely on wider changes to political processes and the institutional culture and practices within the civil service.

A Phono-Stylistic Analysis of Langston Hughes’ Poem “Harlem”

This research was utilized stylistic analysis tools at the phonological level in the poem titled “Harlem” by Langston Hughes. By leveraging the collective cultural scheme of the Harlem Renaissance, Hughes establishes a connection with the reader, eliciting specific cultural and emotional reactions. The study will be conducted using a qualitative method, followed by organizing the research data into a table and analyzing it by identifying dominant consonants and vowels. The research findings reveal a correlation between the dominant sounds and implicit themes in the poem. Surprisingly, the dominant sounds which is consonant give rise to words such as ‘tear’ and ‘star’, which are related to the theme of the Harlem poem. Both words obtained in this study strengthen the message and emotions conveyed by Hughes regarding the feelings of black individuals. In undertaking this research, it aids researchers in understanding the purpose, intent, and even the style of the author in creating the poem. In this particular poem, Hughes avoids repetition of themes but conveys the feelings of black individuals implicitly. This research contributes to deepening the understanding of stylistic elements at the phonological level and fosters an appreciation for a literary work.

Discursos do 25 de Abril: percurso histórico de um género político

As the 50th anniversary of April 25th approaches, an exploratory study has been initiated on a political genre linked to the history of Portugal: the speech delivered by the President of the Republic during the official ceremony commemorating the Carnation Revolution. Operating under the assumption that, during the production of a text, other texts are reproduced and revis-ited while respecting the genre tradition, a diachronic analysis of speeches produced from 1977 to 2023 was conducted. Following the Sociodiscursive Interactionism perspective, every text must be framed within a genre and the social activity that motivates it. Therefore, this study encompasses an approach to external components (production location, purposes, participants, etc.) before delving into the analysis of compositional elements. This article discusses the results of a qualitative analysis of a corpus comprising 20 speeches, focusing on formal, linguistic, and stylistic elements, as well as the role of narrative sequences in argumentative terms. The repetition of themes, particularly critical reflection and rupture, structural articulations (anaphoric parallelisms), and the narrative sequence is observed as a starting point for constructing arguments by analogy.

Conversations as Vessels and Anchors

Conversations as Vessels and Anchors

Irony in Nasim-e-Shomal Complete Collection

Irony is a ambiguous word whose secondary meaning is important; This literary technique has a wide capacity to convey concepts and purposes that are not available for direct presentation. Nasim Shomal (Sayyid Ashraf al-Din al-Husseini) was one of the poets of the constitutional era who, in order to explain his political and social ideas in the midst of the oppression and tyranny of his time, had no choice but to indirectly express his libertarian ideas. This rhetorical industry benefits. The present study, which has been written in a descriptive-analytical method using library resources and tools, tries to investigate the presence of irony and its types in Nasim Shomal poetry. The results of this study show that the ironic language of North Breeze, in addition to perpetuating its effects, provides a broad context for the creation of irony; Because basically the ironic literary foundation, especially verbal ironics, looks at the secondary meaning, not the primary meaning; And the poet uses this technique, while explaining his social thoughts, tries to remove the fatigue and boredom caused by the repetition of themes. It can also be admitted that the ironies used in his poems are not very rare and most of them are as simple as the language of the poet's poems. Also, based on the present study, it can be acknowledged that the analysis of the poems of Northern Ness is simply a reduction of the latent capacities in this text by considering it as humor in the existing literary studies (and not ironic). Keywords: Irony, North Breeze, Constitution, Social Literature.

Moving Beyond Text-and-Talk in Qualitative Health Research: Methodological Considerations of Using Multiple Media for Data Collection.

Qualitative researchers are increasingly making use of multiple media to collect data within a single study. Such approaches may have the potential to generate rich insights; however, there are also potential methodological challenges in simultaneously analyzing data from multiple media. Using three case studies from our work with women who had recurrent breast cancer in South Africa, we explore four challenges of using multiple media to collect data: (a) how to understand the repetition of themes (or lack thereof) across multiple media; (b) whether or not data collected from multiple media over a protracted period should be read as longitudinal data reflecting a dynamic process; (c) what impact using multiple media has on the participant-researcher relationship; and (d) how the medium may shape the data obtained. We propose that the value of using multiple methods lies in the opportunity they provide to understand how participants engage with the different media.

An observational mixed-methods approach to investigate the fear of cancer recurrence cognitive and emotional model by Lee-Jones et al with women with breast cancer during radiotherapy treatment.

There is minimal qualitative research on fear of cancer recurrence (FCR) in patients who are still undergoing treatment. This study explored how breast cancer patients’ illness beliefs changed during radiotherapy treatment, so as to provide their longitudinal perspective across sessions. These beliefs were mapped to Lee-Jones et al FCR model to assess its applicability to patients during this key treatment phase. A framework qualitative analysis was employed for verbatim interactions between patients (n = 8) and their radiographer (n = 2) over a minimum of three weekly review sessions (26 review consultations in total). Results proved suggested evolution and repetition of themes within and across sessions. Most themes were consistent with the early stages of the Lee-Jones et al model (antecedents and FCR) such as internal and external cues, cognitions and emotions. The crucial observation was that somatic stimuli were interpreted as side effects of radiotherapy treatment rather than cancer symptoms. Patients were still undergoing their last phase of major treatment, whereas the Lee-Jones et al model has been constructed to explain patients’ past treatment experience. New themes emerged, including current exercise, concurrent illnesses/problems, cancer treatment as a constant reminder (of diagnosis) and associated sleeping difficulties. Decatastrophising of symptoms and experiences relating to cancer and its treatment was also a prominent theme indicating a possible coping mechanism to reduce worries about treatment side effects and associated experiences. Finally, some evidence was found from failure of emotional/fear processing in patients due to early surface reassurance by health professionals – a possible explanation of how FCR might arise. Early detection of FCR and promoting support while patients are still undergoing treatment might prevent patients from developing FCR after treatment.

Lucretia Mott Speaks: The Essential Speeches and Sermons ed. by Christopher Densmore et al.

Reviewed by: Lucretia Mott Speaks: The Essential Speeches and Sermons ed. by Christopher Densmore et al. Mary T. Freeman Lucretia Mott Speaks: The Essential Speeches and Sermons. Edited by Christopher Densmore, Carol Faulkner, Nancy Hewitt, and Beverly Wilson Palmer. ( Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2017. 264 pp. Illustrations, index. $75.) Lucretia Mott was one of the most widely renowned speakers of her time, known as much for "her inspiring and provocative words as for her principled and courageous actions" (xi). But Mott did not write down her speeches and sermons, preferring to speak spontaneously, in the Quaker tradition, guided by the inner light. Such a practice presents a conundrum to modern scholars, who have rightly placed Mott among the greatest reformers of the nineteenth century but who have thus far lacked a comprehensive collection of her intellectual contributions. [End Page 109] This new volume is an authoritative record of Mott's spoken works. The editors have mined archival sources, newspapers, and other printed accounts to identify a total of about 190 lectures, from which they have selected and reproduced sixty speeches. The result spans from Mott's first brief public remarks at the Twelfth Street Monthly Meeting in Philadelphia in 1818 to her address at the thirtieth anniversary of the Seneca Falls Convention in Rochester, New York, in 1878, when Mott was eighty-five years old. Editorial annotations reveal Mott's milieu: the audiences to whom she spoke, the allies and opponents to whom she responded, and the literary reference points she used to support her arguments. The editors offer a sensitive assessment of Mott's oratory as distinct from her letters in terms of both form and content. Mott's speeches and sermons represented the public face of her activism; unlike her correspondence, her lectures seldom mentioned household affairs. Furthermore, the records of Mott's speeches come to readers from third parties. The imperfect nature of such sources for faithfully capturing Mott's words is apparent when, for example, a stenographer noted, "a few words towards the close of this sermon were not heard distinctly" (68), or when a journalist summarized Mott's comments at the Seneca Falls women's rights convention in just a few sentences. The editors embrace such idiosyncrasies. In doing so, they demonstrate their archival resourcefulness and illuminate the character and context of Mott's public orations. The wide array of causes for which Mott spoke—including abolition, temperance, peace, religious freedom, and education—were intertwined in her mind as part of a larger campaign for the extension of liberty and democracy into all realms of society. Mott's speeches and sermons, in which she often invoked multiple, intersecting causes, serve as compelling evidence of the overlapping and international dimensions of nineteenth-century activism. The repetition of themes in Mott's lectures underscores the power of her radical vision, elevating her as a major intellectual figure and ratifying the editors' admirable ambition to unify the broad scope of her reform work in a single volume. The editors pose a strong challenge to the old-fashioned image of Mott as a quiet, retiring Quaker. Mott's provocative ideas, her eloquent arguments, and her occasionally sharp tongue are on display on every page. She often reminded her audiences that the principle of nonresistance was not equivalent to the acceptance of injustice. Mott's speeches demonstrate that her pacifism did not preclude her from constant, vigorous agitation. [End Page 110] Mary T. Freeman University of Maine Copyright © 2019 Clearance Center, Inc.

FEATURES OF THE ARTISTIC INTERPRETATION OF THE CHERNOBYL TRAGEDY IN THE LYRI CS OF LINA KOS TENKO (аrticle two)

In the article features of artistic interpretation of Chernobyl tragedy in poetic and publicistic works of Lina Kostenko are considered.The Chernobyl theme in the works of Lina Kostenko constitutes the basis and center of the lyrical experience, forming a complete work. The Chernobyl tragedy entered the poetic consciousness of the poetess so deeply that even in the works on another theme memories of Chernobyl, allusion to it arise, a mosaic of thoughts and feelings of the poetess turned to modern reality is formed.Lina Kostenko continues the best traditions of Ukrainian literature which are associated with acute perception and ethical and philosophical artistic understanding of the most important socio-historical events, phenomena, processes for the country and people. At the same time, the poetess not only recreates her artistic perception of the world, but also transforms, reinterprets traditional genres, sometimes falling back to combinatorics of various genre and poetology systems. Not so much as desire for a unique repetition of themes, images, emotions, thoughts but also some kind of inner peculiar repeatability is inherent to Lina Kostenko’s creative consciousness. It is based on the integrity of the author’s lyrical subject with its special ethical and philosophical vision of reality, the view of life addressed to the contemporary reader.In the work of Lina Kostenko a distinctly pronounced tendency of the aesthetic solution of acute socio-historical, moral, philosophical problems actual for the modern life of the Ukrainian people emerges.The peculiarities of this view of life, the experience of the world are peculiarly refracted in the lyrical and tragic theme of the Chernobyl disaster.

The repeating self: Sarah Lucas’ Self-Portraits (an experiment in art writing)

Abstract In Self-Portraits, Sarah Lucas employs Barthes’ notion of the punctum like an overused punch line: forcing an intentional moment when the puzzle pieces come together and trigger a ‘prick’. To bring together the object of analysis – Lucas’ self-portraits – and the text of analysis, I employ in writing the same intentional punctum (a rupturing of the prose through the written repetition of themes, arguments and questions) that Lucas employs through photography. This adaption in writing of Lucas’ strategy of representation reveals further, and different knowledge, than other forms of art writing might in unpacking the central question, what does repetition in Lucas’ selfportraits reveal about identity and gender? Repetition is fundamental to the ways in which Lucas both displays and disarms her ‘self’ through the photographic portraits. Lucas’ repetitive visual vernacular leaves her identity paradoxically unstable – simultaneously constituted but punctured by that which it seeks to tear down – while the deliberate and repeated use of psychoanalytic citations and gender performance leaves Lucas inhabiting a state of inbetweeness.

Recurrent themes in the history of the home use of electrical stimulation: Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) and the medical battery (1870-1920).

In recent years, neuroscientists and ethicists have warned of the dangers of the unsupervised home use of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), in which individuals stimulate their own brains with low levels of electricity for self-improvement purposes. Although the home use of tDCS is often referred to as a novel phenomenon, in reality the late nineteenth and early twentieth century saw a proliferation of electrical stimulation devices for home use. In particular, the use of an object known as the medical battery bears a number of striking similarities to the modern-day use of tDCS. This article reviews a number of features thought to be unique to the present day home use of brain stimulation, with a particular focus on analogies between tDCS and the medical battery. Archival research was conducted at the Bakken Museum and at the American Medical Association's Historical Health Fraud Archives. Many of the features characterizing the contemporary home use tDCS-a do-it-yourself (DIY) movement, anti-medical establishment themes, conflicts between lay and professional usage-are a repetition of themes that occurred a century ago with regard to the medical battery. A number of features, however, seem to be unique to the present, such as the dominant discourse about risk and safety, the division between cranial and non-cranial stimulation, and utilization for cognitive enhancement purposes. Viewed in the long durée, the contemporary use of electrical stimulation at home is not a novel phenomenon, but rather the latest wave in a series of ongoing attempts by lay individuals to utilize electricity for therapeutic purposes.

Remodelando el álbum ilustrado: Jimmy Liao y el autorretrato melancólico = Reshaping picturebooks: Jimmy Liao and the melancolich self-portrait

This article aims to study the evolution in the format of picturebooks in the search for a dual audience: children and adults. Jimmy Liao is a good example to see some of the formal features of the so-called crossover literature. In his books we can see a wide range of narrative devices that help to build up multilayered stories in order to make different ways of reading them possible according to the age of the reader. The repetition of themes, narrative motifs and characters seems to create an organic work based on some recurrent metaphors that can be considered as footprints that lead to some kind of melancholic self-portrait.

The Age of the Efendiyya: Passages to Modernity in National-Colonial Egypt

The Age of the Efendiyya: Passages to Modernity in National-Colonial Egypt

Descripción y análisis de capas superpuestas en <em>El castillo de Lindabridis</em> de Calderón

This paper describes and analyzes the highlights of a play El castillo de Lindabridis of Calderon de la Barca: topics relating to the date of his writing and his performances in the seventeenth century, the management of chivalric sources, the unitary structure, the use of emblematic material through the medieval bestiaries, musical interludes, and the staging and the repetition of themes and motifs, along with some final considerations about gender. All these factors indicate the particular importance of this comedy of Calderon.

Of Grasshoppers, Caterpillars, and Beans: A Historical Perspective on Hmong Messianism

AbstractThis paper considers Hmong messianism in Asia and beyond from a historical perspective, arguing that its thematic repetition of themes and ideas requires a new understanding of subjectivity at the intersections of the psychological with the social and political. Hmong messianic movements have adopted a variety of forms ranging from the more indigenous to the more explicitly Christian. While the attempt is not to seek a particularist ‘ethnographic-historical’ understanding of these recurrent movements, nevertheless the contexts of colonialisation, mass migration and marginal social status are suggested as providing the essential background for such an understanding. Several different theoretical approaches to understanding such movements are considered, with some attention to major theorists of structure and agency. It is argued that ultimately messianic movements can be appreciated in terms of a kind of ‘anticipatory consciousness’, and are enabled to challenge current social orders because they are motivated by a particular notion of time, which combines a medieval and revolutionary notion of simultaneity with one of historical progression which is, however, not gradualist. A ‘central irreducible core’ of ritual beliefs and actions among the Hmong emerges from this consideration of historical movements, which may demand a reconsideration of older and largely abandoned notions of cultural structure.

Explorations stendhaliennes: d’Armance à la Fraternité des arts” par C.W. Thompson

Reviews 237 explain how this secular “comedy of social existence” (289) leads ultimately to the spiritual renewal of the protagonist. Thiher’s book, an insightful and intelligent guide for both new and experienced readers, is a welcome addition to the critical works currently available that examine the network of cultural, artistic, social, intellectual— and now religious—connections underpinning Proust’s oeuvre. Brandeis University Hollie Markland Harder Thompson, C.W. Explorations stendhaliennes: d’Armance à la “Fraternité des arts”. Paris: Hermann, 2013. ISBN 978-2-7056-8717-5. Pp. 477. 30 a. This collection of essays, divided into pleasantly readable sections, explores sources and influences that shaped Stendhal’s works, with particular emphasis on Armance. Thompson traces these influences through themes and structures, even through Stendhal’s use of underlining in books, in a broad spectrum of the author’s works, many of which are rarely discussed. A master of this traditional type of scholarship, he provides a kind of engaging detective story, as he tracks down clues in answer to his questions and builds his case. He writes in a highly readable, elegant style and enjoys an encyclopedic knowledge of Stendhal’s works. Some of the essays are reconsiderations of his past work, which benefits from knowledge recently obtained. One of the main assertions in the collection is that, if Stendhal improvised as he wrote, he also responded to the particular context of his time and included learned references, despite his seemingly offhand style. Furthermore, if De l’amour seems confusing and poorly organized, this lack of design reflects one of the basic themes of the text, the game of chance and the possibility of new beginnings, which also appears in other works. The repetition of themes and structures throughout Stendhal’s works receives consistent attention, such as the opposition between the priest and the soldier, the ambiguities of gender, and doubling and repetition. Thompson also analyzes the neglected use of the myths of Don Juan and Casanova, and he speculates on the reasons why critics neglect these icons and the liberty and self-invention that they represent. One theme that appears repeatedly in Stendhal’s works is that of the drowning of the writer. Entangled with Stendhal’s own fantasy of this death are the near drownings of Byron and Shelley, and Julie and Saint-Preux, as well as the real death of Shelley. A theme of interest to current literary analyses is Stendhal’s fascination with the androgyny and bisexuality associated with Byron, Custine, and Girodet-Trioson. Other themes investigated include hunchbacks in literary and political contexts, and excessive eating in Féder and contemporary culture. One section of the book deals with the importance of the other arts for Stendhal and his opinions about their interrelation. Thompson shows that Stendhal influenced the art criticism of his time, that he was for the freedom of art, and that he found merit in certain contemporary French painters whose reputations have endured. Stendhal believed that one art should not be transposed into another, but that similar suggestions or feelings could be inspired by or reflected in the different arts. The final section of the book looks at Stendhal’s use of footnotes, underlining, and markings in his manuscripts and his books, and also in other authors’ books. In the latter we see Stendhal creating himself while absorbing others. For Stendhal lovers, this book provides useful and enriching information as a backdrop to the author’s works. Boston University Dorothy Kelly Tsimbidy, Myriam. La mémoire des lettres: la lettre dans les Mémoires du XVIIe siècle. Paris: Garnier, 2013. ISBN 978-2-8124-0902-8. Pp. 348. 39 a. The early modern memoirist tells or re-tells a bit of history from a specific, personal point of view, and often from a position of disgrace. Tsimbidy argues that letters embedded in a memoir shape and advance the narrative constructed by the memoirist, and furthermore, that the placement and editing of those letters serve the fundamental purpose of the memoir: to justify the actions of its author. In her first chapter, Tsimbidy describes the criteria she used in determining which memoirs to include in her study. She selected memoirs dealing with...

Daniel Senise, "2892": between being and nothingness, the spectator

This essay investigates a work by the artist Daniel Senise entitled "2892", which at first appears to be atypical within the oeuvre. It traces the production of compositional characteristics as well as the repetition of themes and figures within other more overtly painterly works produced at the moment of conception of "2892" arguing that there is a contextual coherence within the group as a whole. Whilst almost two decades separate the conception of "2892" and its first public showing, the essay then speculates on some interesting co-relations that exist between the site in which it was shown and the trajectory that the other painterly work concurrently took.

Thematic and Lexical Repetition in a Contemporary Screenplay

Several works on film theory and screenwriting practice take up the question of repetition within narrative. However, few if any, have articulated theories about the relationship between the repetition of the words that comprise the screenplay itself and repetition of the themes that lend coherence to the narrative. In this study we address this gap in the screenwriting and film literature. Specifically, we analyze repetition of words and themes in the screenplay of Sunshine Cleaning, a critically-acclaimed independent film. Based on our survey of the literature, we expect and we find several varieties of repetition among words associated with the major themes in Sunshine Cleaning. This repetition includes but is not limited to polyptoton (words formed by inflections, declensions, and conjugations of a common stem), homonymy, paregmenon (words sharing a common derivation), and compounding (words formed by combining two or more words). We further expect and find that the repetition of words linked to themes is extensive and found in the large majority of the scenes of the screenplay. Finally, we expect and find that words associated with the themes are repeated far more frequently than in a random sample of screenplays contained within the Corpus of Contemporary American English. We conclude the paper with a discussion of our study’s implications for the art and craft of screenwriting.

Il cammino verso una nuova scrittura: Geblendeter Augenblick

In his novel Geblendeter Augenblick. Anton Webern's Tod (1996) Gert Jonke, one of the most celebrated Austria's author (1955-2009), reshapes and “recomposes” the historical final moment of Anton Webern’s life as a musical one. An accomplished musician as well as a writer and playwright, Jonke orchestrates language as a music composition. The analysis of the “play-concert” Un Abbaglio by Tam Teatromusica (2006), a “translation into performance” of Jonke's novel, aims at investigating both the relationship with the italian translation and the consonances with the poetics and the linguistic means of the author. The way Tam Teatromusica employs sound, lighting and projected images on the stage corresponds to the poetic features of Jonke's work: an anti-narrative structure, a particular rhythm obtained through repetition of themes, the amplification of fragments, the condensation of images of the past and the present, a language made of stratifications and ambivalences. Un abbaglio intertwines the theme of memory and images from Anton Webern's biography, inquiring into the meaning and the destiny of art.

The Indus Civilization: A Contemporary Perspective (review)

Reviewed by: The Indus Civilization: A Contemporary Perspective Monica L. Smith The Indus Civilization: A Contemporary Perspective. Gregory L. Possehl. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press, 2002. 280 pp., paperback. $32.95. ISBN 075-910-172-8. It is a marker of the increasing visibility of South Asian archaeology that there are now textbooks on the subject for undergraduate audiences, the most recent of which is Gregory Possehl's The Indus Civilization: A Contemporary Perspective. Drawing on a lifetime of research on the Harappan (Indus) culture of the regions now encompassed in Pakistan and western India, Possehl's book is a welcome and affordable addition to the comprehensive literature. Although it was purposefully written to be a textbook, the volume contains many features that make it a suitable reference volume for anyone working in Asia and especially for those interested in the Bronze Age. Its organization and the repetition of themes, along with cross-referencing within the volume, make it particularly useful for nonspecialists who may want to read selectively about aspects such as ritual, writing, and exchange. Throughout the book, Possehl seeks out the humanity of the Indus people rather than treating the era as a mysterious collection of artifacts. The physical environment is presented as challenging and diverse, in which entrepreneurship and problem solving were valued traits. The evocative language enables us to picture the skills and labor needed not only to create abstractions such as cities but also real commodities like bricks, food, pots, and textiles. The book begins by showing how the people of the Indus area consisted of interdependent agriculturalists, traders, and herders, a theme repeated throughout the volume. Chapter 1 also has biographical sketches of the main individuals who have contributed to Indus studies, highlighting the many important contributions of local and foreign scholars over the past century. The tone of the chapter is rather measured; especially in a book written as a course text, one might wish for a somewhat more dramatic introduction of this rich Bronze Age cultural tradition with its walled cities, elaborate craft traditions, undeciphered script, and curiously absent elites (to date, while there have been labor-intensive portable goods throughout Indus sites, there are no fancy burials or elaborate temples). Chapter 2 examines the beginning of the Indus age by placing the region in a broader Old World context, emphasizing how food production became and remained the critical factor in increased social complexity. Many archaeobotanists and faunal analysts have worked in the Indus area, and Possehl draws on the work of individuals such as Richard Meadow, Lorenzo Costantini, [End Page 293] and Steven Weber to propose that subsistence strategies were not based on a simple adoption of the Near Eastern domesticates of wheat, barley, cattle, sheep, and goats. Instead, faunal evidence and local environmental conditions suggest that the domestication of some species, particularly cattle and wheat, was likely to have been accomplished locally. The full flavor of the Indus culture is discussed starting in chapter 3, focusing especially on what Possehl calls the "four aspects of Indus ideology." First, he notes that conscious nihilism and renewal were practiced on a large scale, using as one example the urban site of Mohenjo-Daro, which appears to have been established on the plains as a new habitation with planned components including a street grid, monumental platforms, and elaborate drainage. Second, the Indus culture had a considerable fascination with water, for which Possehl borrows from Michael Jansen the term "wasserluxus" to describe the Indus peoples' careful attention to the construction of drains, wells, and bathing platforms, as well as the frequent appearance of the water buffalo in iconography. Third, the Indus was a time of technological sophistication and innovation, including the development of a writing system, metallurgy, maritime technology, and lapidary arts including beads and intricate stone seals. Finally, Possehl highlights the way in which cities were a focal point for both ideology and skilled craft production. The Indus culture had at least five cities, including the relatively newly discovered sites of Dholavira, Rakhigarhi, and Ganweriwala, in addition to the well-known Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro, which remain the most extensively excavated urban zones. A discussion of these and other sites including Possehl...