Short Chronology Research Articles

Domestic, artisanal, and ritual activities in a classic Maya city: Functional analysis of flint drills from the Cancuén site (AD 650–800, Guatemala)

The difficulty in determining the domestic and craft activities that took place in Maya cities during the Classic period (250–950 CE) has resulted in much debate on the nature and functioning of Mesoamerican cities. These activities are rarely identified because of the systematic cleaning of the occupied spaces that occurred and the unfavourable conditions for the preservation of perishable objects. To characterize the activities that took place in the areas uncovered, we carried out a functional analysis of the lithic tools most frequently found during excavations. Our study focused on the site of Cancuén (Guatemala), which because of its short chronology, is an ideal case for determining the spatial distribution of the activities that took place there. Our analysis focused on one type of tool: flint drills, rare in the Maya region but abundant within the city of Cancuén. The tools selected for the functional analysis come from several contexts–domestic, public, ritual (burial) as well as places of artisanal production – in order to determine the difference in status of these objects according to their contexts of use. The results of the functional analysis show that drills were used for a wide variety of tasks. While this type of tool was used as needed for various materials, including wood and pottery, it was sometimes used for very specialized activities, such as the working of teeth. The analysis of tools from ritual contexts suggests that their presence could have added value to the offering. This analysis enables us to provide the first elements of understanding of the organization of artisanal, domestic, and ritual activities in the city of Cancuén.

When Che’ (wood) meets tun (stone): Experimental programs and functional analysis of stone tools. The case of the Classic Maya site of Cancuén (Guatemala)

The importance of plant resources in Maya economies during the colonial and modern periods is widely recorded in ethno-historical and ethnographic studies. However, it is still difficult to determine the place of these resources in the Classic period, especially because of poor preservation of perishable materials. We propose in this article a study of the function of lithic tools from the site of Cancuén (Guatemala), a site that, because of its short chronology, is an ideal case study for determining spatial distribution of activities within a city. For this, we carried out experiments on the working of several species of wood and a gourd specific to Central America, to constitute a frame of reference for traces that are appropriate to the study of pre-Columbian populations.The functional analysis of a sample of flint drills and obsidian blades from this site indicates the importance of activities related to the working of wood. It is particularly through study of the blades that we may identify these activities in contexts that are domestic as well as ceremonial, public or for artisanal production. This analysis enables reflection on the possibility of the existence of multicrafting zones and on the type of tools used for working wood.

The Role of the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Serbia in the Conduct of Ethnic Cleansing of the Albanian Population in Kosovo and Metohija From 1998 to 1999

The paper presents a short chronology of the political conflict in the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija (Socialist Autonomous Province of Kosovo, until the constitutional changes of 1989), which in the 1990s turned into an armed conflict in which the security forces of the Republic of Serbia from October 1998 to June 1999, carried out a planned action of ethnic cleansing of Kosovo Albanians. In the action, several thousand Albanian civilians were executed extrajudicially and between 800,000 and 850,000 Albanians were forcefully expelled to Macedonia, Montenegro, Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina. This paper is based on the final judgments of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) by which the highest state officials and military and police generals in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the Republic of Serbia were convicted of joint criminal enterprise aimed at altering the ethnic structure in at least 13 Kosovo municipalities, especially in the period of the NATO alliance campaign from March 24 to June 12, 1999. The role of the Ministry of Interior in the joint criminal enterprise (JCE), as established by the ICTY judgments to the then Ministry of Interior leaders: Vlastimir Đordđević, head of the Public Security Department, Sreten Lukić, head of the Ministry of Interior Staff for Kosovo, (Vlajko Stojiljković, the Minister of Interior, was also accused, but he committed suicide in 2002) - is undoubted. Therefore, it calls for a public analysis and presentation of the role of this part of the repressive apparatus of the state of Serbia in the ethnic cleansing of Kosovo Albanians, as well as its role in the planned and systematic concealment of crimes. The concealment of the crime was conducted from March to June 1999 by the Ministry of Interior forces through secret operations of transfer of bodies of Kosovo Albanians from primary graves in Kosovo and their burial in mass graves at secret locations in Serbia. Three graves were discovered in 2001 and one in 2013, with the assumption that there are more because they are looking for another 1,086 Albanian victims and 562 victims of Serbs, Roma, Bosniaks, Egyptians, Ashkali and others.

Troy between mythology and documents

Greek mythology mentions Motylos, king in Asia Minor, who received Helen and Paris after they fled the mythical Sparta. Who was Motylos and whether his appearance in ancient Hellenic mythography is in fact perhaps a reminiscence and some “rough” memory of a real ruler of Asia Minor in the XIII century BC. As one of the first candidates for possible reminiscence is Muwatal II. (Muwatalli; Muwatallish) Hittite ruler in the period (according to a short chronology) from 1295 to 1272. BC. The main reason is the existence of a document, found in the Hittite archives in Hatusha, which is called the Alaksandu Treaty (CTH 76). It is a diplomatic treaty (with an approximate date cc 1280 BC) between Muwatal II. and Alaksandu, king of Wilusa. In historiography and archeology it is now unquestionable that Wilusa refers to that city which in ancient Hellenic mythology is called Ilion, while Aleksandu is associated with Paris (Πάρις), whose name by birth was Alexander (Ἀλέξανδρος). It is interesting that in Greek mythology, there is also information that the Paris and Helena fleet was cruising the eastern Mediterranean and that it was carrying out attacks along the coast of the Levant. Perhaps this mythology is actually a memory of the time when the Trojans were part of a military contingent led by Muwatal in the war with the Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses II, which broke out after the conclusion of the Treaty of Aleksandu.

A crítica de rock repaginada e despaginada. Da autoridade no jornalismo cultural à plataformização e performance de gosto

On this paper we discuss the current potentialities of rock n' roll critics, highlighting its production, reception and circulation scenarios by the platformization perspective and understanding the current criticism as a taste performance. We refuse the idea that the criticism itself became obsolete, as it has been claimed by some, and argue that, in fact, there is a repositioning process that led into the current rock critics escaping the big newspapers and magazines and having no requirement of a journalism academic degree. We present a short chronology of arts journalism, focused on culture, and rock criticism, as part of the journalism based on opinion, where the rock journalists used to claim their authorities because of their repertory and authenticity. Our main purpose here is to demonstrate that not just these values are no longer determinant for one to publish his own critics, but criticism is now less of a judgment of taste than it is a horizontally and immediatism mediation. It is not a sentence defining made by one if something is good or bad -or must be bought or not -but a sharing of taste to and by many.

Introduction into Research of the Archaeological Society of Yugoslavia (1949–1991)

The text lays the grounds for the research into the activities of the Archaeological Society of Yugoslavia (ASY) in all its organizational aspects (1949–1991). The concept of scientific societies – one of the forms of organization of scholars in various discipline, is investigated. The aim is to introduce a wider investigation of ASY’s importance in archaeology, organized into several interconnected parts. A short chronology of the genesis of scientific societies in the territory of former Yugoslavia is laid out. The fact is emphasized that ASY was founded upon older traditions that shaped the diversity of archaeological practices in the region. New information is offered on organization of archaeologists in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, introducing for the first time the meeting of Yugoslav archaeologists in Dobrna by Celje, Slovenia, in 1922, thus acquiring a wider context for the interpretation of the first congress of Yugoslav archaeologists, held the same year in Belgrade. The importance of these meetings is emphasized, as well as the idea of the foundation of an archaeological institute in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, although it is clearly stated that the process of joining archaeologists in the Kingdom was unsuccessful in the long term. A chronological overview of the development of ASY is presented through its organizational forms: Coordination Board of Yugoslav Archaeologists (1949–1954), Archaeological Society of Yugoslavia (1954–1972) and Association of Archaeological Societies of Yugoslavia (1972–1991). The activities and achievements of the association are described (congresses, symposia, publishing activity...), implicitly linking the genesis of ASY with the development of the Yugoslav society and state. The importance of ASY is discussed and of the research issues its work raises. Since the paper is the result of the work in progress, the conclusions are not final, and the focus of research is flexible. The accessible evidence is discussed. The concluding part of the paper offers the author’s assessment of the importance of ASY and the concept of autonomous “Yugoslav archaeology”.

Thiol-Mediated Uptake.

This Perspective focuses on thiol-mediated uptake, that is, the entry of substrates into cells enabled by oligochalcogenides or mimics, often disulfides, and inhibited by thiol-reactive agents. A short chronology from the initial observations in 1990 until today is followed by a summary of cell-penetrating poly(disulfide)s (CPDs) and cyclic oligochalcogenides (COCs) as privileged scaffolds in thiol-mediated uptake and inhibitors of thiol-mediated uptake as potential antivirals. In the spirit of a Perspective, the main part brings together topics that possibly could help to explain how thiol-mediated uptake really works. Extreme sulfur chemistry mostly related to COCs and their mimics, cyclic disulfides, thiosulfinates/-onates, diselenolanes, benzopolysulfanes, but also arsenics and Michael acceptors, is viewed in the context of acidity, ring tension, exchange cascades, adaptive networks, exchange affinity columns, molecular walkers, ring-opening polymerizations, and templated polymerizations. Micellar pores (or lipid ion channels) are considered, from cell-penetrating peptides and natural antibiotics to voltage sensors, and a concise gallery of membrane proteins, as possible targets of thiol-mediated uptake, is provided, including CLIC1, a thiol-reactive chloride channel; TMEM16F, a Ca-activated scramblase; EGFR, the epithelial growth factor receptor; and protein-disulfide isomerase, known from HIV entry or the transferrin receptor, a top hit in proteomics and recently identified in the cellular entry of SARS-CoV-2.

MAKARENKO DIMENSION OF MUSEUM PEDAGOGY

The experience is generalized and a short chronology of the museum reflection of the life and activity of A. S. Makarenko is presented. The main features of functional specificity that determine the unique place of Makarenko museums in the context of the tasks of museum pedagogy are characterized - the audience, the system of functions, the contradictions of the museum presentation of the heritage of A. S. Makarenko. Emphasis is placed on the fact that the Makarenko Museum as a scientific, artistic and educational phenomenon is an optimal and creative form of study, interpretation and exposition of the legacy of an outstanding teacher, his multifaceted activities should be considered in the categories of many fields of scientific knowledge. It is emphasized that the Makarenko Museum is a specific and bright phenomenon of pedagogical culture, the educational, didactic and career potential of which goes beyond the traditional mission of the museum as a component of the educational environment. Museum institutions dedicated to AS Makarenko, due to their functional specificity, not only significantly enrich the content, tasks and possibilities of museum pedagogy as such, but open a new dimension of its paradigmatic essence.

ОТОЖДЕСТВЛЕНИЕ ПАТРИАРХОВ С ИСТОРИЧЕСКИМИ ФИГУРАМИ

The author correctly identifies the Patriarchs of monotheistic religions with historical figures of the past based on the paradigm of a short chronology of the world and linking events to unique celestial phenomena reflected in Chronicles and Scriptural. The identification of the Patriarchs is based on the analysis of data from the genealogical trees of Jesus Christ from Lucas, Matthew, mosaics of the Church of Chora, the genealogical tree of the Prophet Muhammad and lists of the Kings of the Great Bulgaria.

СИНХРОНИЗАЦИЯ ИСТОРИЧЕСКИХ И РЕЛИГИОЗНЫХ ХРОНИК

The author correctly synchronizes historical and religious Chronicles of the Ancient World based on a short chronology and linking events to unique celestial phenomena reflected in the annals and Scriptures. The author believes that discrepancies in dates,geographical localities and ethnic origin of historical and religious figures are due to erroneous traditional chronology and historical geography, as well as the deliberate adaptation of phenomena and events to an established paradigm. In addition, differences in religious traditions and facts of real history are caused by ignorance and fanaticism of adherents certain religions

АСТРОНОМИЧЕСКАЯ ДАТИРОВКА БИБЛЕЙСКИХ СОБЫТИЙ

The Dating of biblical events is legendary and weakly correlated with the bright astronomical phenomena described in the Chronicles and which can be identified with modern mathematical tools. According to the author this is due to false traditional chronology, erroneous geographical reference, and deliberate adaptation of phenomena and events by theologians and historians to established stereotypes. The study of ancient Chronicles, Biblical descriptions and his own reconstruction of the history of Ancient Egypt, Ancient Rome and the chronology of monotheistic religions, allowed the author to uniquely link the chronological line of the past to the chain of historical events, characters and celestial occurrence. All astronomical phenomena of ancient Chronicles have found their exact identification with calculated Solar Eclipses and Zodiacs, which instrumentally confirms the correctness of the short chronology of the past and the author's reconstruction of history.

L’écriture du temps dans le récit de voyage entre Lumières et romantisme

Using a corpus of accounts from travellers who visited Europe between the 1750s and 1850s, this article examines the conscious and unconscious influence of time in travel literature. Taking into account the editorial freedoms that have emerged since the mid-18th century, the study examines the central role of date in the travel narrative, and then focuses on the study of short chronology, narrative temporalities and the explicit expression of the sense of time.

The Climate Response of Cedrela Fissilis Annual Ring Width in the Rio São Francisco Basin, Brazil

The São Francisco River basin is one of the most drought-prone regions of Brazil. Seasonally dry tropical forests (SDTF) are widely distributed in the basin and we developed a short chronology of Cedrela fissilis annual ring widths from SDTF fragments based on 89 cores from 44 trees dating from 1961 to 2015. The average correlation among all radii (RBAR) is 0.52. The tree-ring chronology is correlated with wet season precipitation totals, must strongly and consistently near the beginning of the wet season. The spatial pattern of correlation covers most of the southern portion of the Brazilian Drought Polygon and the sub-basins of the two largest tributaries of the São Francisco River, in some areas exceeding r = 0.60. The chronology is also correlated with total annual discharge of the Rio São Francisco River measured at Barra (r = 0.489; 1961–2015), which is very promising in a country that generates two thirds of its electricity from hydroelectric power plants, particularly if this short chronology can be extended with trees exceeding 150-years old known to still exist in the region.

Patyk, Lynn Ellen Written in Blood: Revolutionary Terrorism and Russian Literary Culture, 1861–1881 (review)

REVIEWS 545 his novel shares with a few of its predecessors and a follower. One could only wish that such a thoughtful guide would exist for one’s other favourite works of fiction. Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures Tatiana Kuzmic Harvard University Patyk, Lynn Ellen. Written in Blood: Revolutionary Terrorism and Russian Literary Culture, 1861–1881. The University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, WI, 2017. xiii + 349 pp. Notes. Bibliography. Index. $69.95. Scholars have long been aware of the role played by literature in the history of the Russian revolutionary movement. As yet, however, most studies have focused on radical writers and critics, with the relationship between the political struggles of the late imperial period and Russian culture more generally remaining comparatively unexplored. With this absorbing and commendably interdisciplinary ‘literary history of terrorism’ (p. 4), in which she argues that revolutionary violence and its practitioners acquired literary form within the Russian canon long before they emerged in practice, Lynn Ellen Patyk goes some considerable way towards redressing this balance. Written in Blood takes as its central theme the interplay of word and deed (slovo i delo). For Patyk, Russian revolutionary terrorism was nurtured by a ‘subtle and intricate feedback loop between art and life, between cultural representations […] and political violence’ (p. 11). Focusing on the period from the advent of the Great Reforms to the revolutionary shockwaves that convulsed Russia in the years 1878–81, she demonstrates that a wide variety of writers from across the political spectrum rehearsed in words the later regicidal escapades of Narodnaia volia and, in so doing, perceived the moral dilemmas of terrorism with remarkable clarity. It is from this emphasis on the mimesis of culture and politics that the book derives much of its incisiveness and originality, since it allows Patyk not only to conceptualize terrorism as both a concrete act of violence and a socio-cultural construct (a dichotomy central to terrorism studies, yet explicitly disavowed in her introduction), but to adopt a broader perspective on her chosen topic. The idealized literary ‘models for action’ bequeathed by Ryleev, Chernyshevskii et al. to their ideological heirs, and familiar to contemporary scholars from the work of Iurii Lotman and others, are only part of the story here. By admitting to her purview nonrevolutionary writers such as Pushkin, Turgenev and Dostoevskii, Patyk shows that Russian literary culture as a whole was complicit in, yet deeply ambivalent about, the genesis of terrorism. SEER, 96, 3, JULY 2018 546 Despite the book’s impressive dramatis personae, it is Dostoevskii whom Patyk singles out for his ‘remarkable attunement to and synchrony with revolutionary terrorism’ (p. 13), and to whom most of Written in Blood is devoted. The final chapters of part one, and parts two and three altogether, are given over to a re-reading of Crime and Punishment, Demons and The Brothers Karamazov against the backdrop of the proto-terrorist outrages with which each coincided (Dmitrii Karakozov’s failed 1866 attempt on the life of Alexander II, the Nechaev affair of 1869 and Vera Zasulich’s trial in 1878). If such extensive treatment may at first seem daunting to the non-specialist reader, their persistence will be amply rewarded, for these chapters make a compelling case that the genesis of terrorism was, in fact, the very ‘new word’ of which Dostoevskii often spoke but never defined. In particular, the sections dealing with the Nechaev and Zasulich trials, in which the author shows that the defence advocates’ rhetorical strategies in both cases drew upon literary models originating with Dostoevskii, and that the latter, in turn, reciprocated by writing the Zasulich trial into the denouement of The Brothers Karamazov — thus creating a public forum for discussion of the unfolding revolutionary crisis — are thoroughly engrossing. Although Patyk is careful to qualify her discussion of Dostoevskii by stressing his loyalty to the autocracy and opposition to the revolutionaries he depicted, he unquestionably emerges from Written in Blood as a more politically-ambiguous figure than the reactionary of popular repute. It is difficult to find fault with this book. Readers with an interest in the Silver Age may regret that the relatively short chronology precludes any discussion of how the literary culture...

Nouvelles données sur la chronologie des sites paléolithiques en contexte lœssique du Nord-Est et du Sud-Est de la Roumanie (Périphérie orientale des Carpates)

In the present study, the chronology of several intraloessic Upper and Middle Palaeolithic sites, located in Moldova, Dobrogea and the eastern Danube Plain, is re-examined and better defined on the basis of new chronological data (IRSL ages on loess, ESR/U-Th ages on teeth) and also biostratigraphic and pedostratigraphic evidence. Middle Palaeolithic occupations have been identified in the MIS 6 loess L2 (interstadial episode), the MIS 7 pedocomplex S2 and the red soils S3 presumably assigned to MIS 9. These results are questioning the chronological extension of the Middle Palaeolithic in Romania which until early 2000 (Păunescu, 1999 a, b; Cârciumaru, 1999) was restricted to the Upper Pleistocene (short chronology: 130–35ka; MIS 5-MIS 3). Hence, we demonstrate herein that Humans were already present during the Middle Pleistocene at the eastern periphery of the Carpathian Mountains, along the Danube valley and its tributary, the Prut River.

Review of Patyk, Lynn Ellen. Written in blood: revolutionary terrorism and Russian literary culture, 1861–1881

REVIEWS 545 his novel shares with a few of its predecessors and a follower. One could only wish that such a thoughtful guide would exist for one’s other favourite works of fiction. Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures Tatiana Kuzmic Harvard University Patyk, Lynn Ellen. Written in Blood: Revolutionary Terrorism and Russian Literary Culture, 1861–1881. The University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, WI, 2017. xiii + 349 pp. Notes. Bibliography. Index. $69.95. Scholars have long been aware of the role played by literature in the history of the Russian revolutionary movement. As yet, however, most studies have focused on radical writers and critics, with the relationship between the political struggles of the late imperial period and Russian culture more generally remaining comparatively unexplored. With this absorbing and commendably interdisciplinary ‘literary history of terrorism’ (p. 4), in which she argues that revolutionary violence and its practitioners acquired literary form within the Russian canon long before they emerged in practice, Lynn Ellen Patyk goes some considerable way towards redressing this balance. Written in Blood takes as its central theme the interplay of word and deed (slovo i delo). For Patyk, Russian revolutionary terrorism was nurtured by a ‘subtle and intricate feedback loop between art and life, between cultural representations […] and political violence’ (p. 11). Focusing on the period from the advent of the Great Reforms to the revolutionary shockwaves that convulsed Russia in the years 1878–81, she demonstrates that a wide variety of writers from across the political spectrum rehearsed in words the later regicidal escapades of Narodnaia volia and, in so doing, perceived the moral dilemmas of terrorism with remarkable clarity. It is from this emphasis on the mimesis of culture and politics that the book derives much of its incisiveness and originality, since it allows Patyk not only to conceptualize terrorism as both a concrete act of violence and a socio-cultural construct (a dichotomy central to terrorism studies, yet explicitly disavowed in her introduction), but to adopt a broader perspective on her chosen topic. The idealized literary ‘models for action’ bequeathed by Ryleev, Chernyshevskii et al. to their ideological heirs, and familiar to contemporary scholars from the work of Iurii Lotman and others, are only part of the story here. By admitting to her purview nonrevolutionary writers such as Pushkin, Turgenev and Dostoevskii, Patyk shows that Russian literary culture as a whole was complicit in, yet deeply ambivalent about, the genesis of terrorism. SEER, 96, 3, JULY 2018 546 Despite the book’s impressive dramatis personae, it is Dostoevskii whom Patyk singles out for his ‘remarkable attunement to and synchrony with revolutionary terrorism’ (p. 13), and to whom most of Written in Blood is devoted. The final chapters of part one, and parts two and three altogether, are given over to a re-reading of Crime and Punishment, Demons and The Brothers Karamazov against the backdrop of the proto-terrorist outrages with which each coincided (Dmitrii Karakozov’s failed 1866 attempt on the life of Alexander II, the Nechaev affair of 1869 and Vera Zasulich’s trial in 1878). If such extensive treatment may at first seem daunting to the non-specialist reader, their persistence will be amply rewarded, for these chapters make a compelling case that the genesis of terrorism was, in fact, the very ‘new word’ of which Dostoevskii often spoke but never defined. In particular, the sections dealing with the Nechaev and Zasulich trials, in which the author shows that the defence advocates’ rhetorical strategies in both cases drew upon literary models originating with Dostoevskii, and that the latter, in turn, reciprocated by writing the Zasulich trial into the denouement of The Brothers Karamazov — thus creating a public forum for discussion of the unfolding revolutionary crisis — are thoroughly engrossing. Although Patyk is careful to qualify her discussion of Dostoevskii by stressing his loyalty to the autocracy and opposition to the revolutionaries he depicted, he unquestionably emerges from Written in Blood as a more politically-ambiguous figure than the reactionary of popular repute. It is difficult to find fault with this book. Readers with an interest in the Silver Age may regret that the relatively short chronology precludes any discussion of how the literary culture...

A Prison Without Walls? Eastern Siberian Exile in the Last Years of Tsarism by Sarah Badcock (review)

SEER, 95, 4, OCTOBER 2017 770 Great Institute. Together with their various co-sponsors, these two beneficent institutions not only brought these books into being, but also facilitated the precious international scholarly interchange from which they derive. UCL SSEES Simon Dixon Badcock, Sarah. A Prison Without Walls? Eastern Siberian Exile in the Last Years of Tsarism. Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York, 2016. xv + 195 pp. Maps. Figures. Notes. Bibliography. Index. £60.00. Few places on earth are more closely identified with exile and punishment than Siberia. To date, however, scholarly interest in the Siberian exile system prior to 1917 (at least outside Russia) has not been equal to the region’s notoriety, and much of what is widely known about the subject remains derived from the unrepresentative experiences of revolutionary memoirists and notions of topdown brutality long enshrined in Soviet historiography. The present study, in which Sarah Badcock attempts to redress this balance by reconstructing the lives and daily struggles of those who comprised Siberia’s exile population in the final years of autocratic rule (1905–17), is therefore most welcome. Badcock’s book is well researched and cogently structured. She has worked extensively in a number of Siberian archives, and has consulted both official publications and a wealth of memoirs written by political exiles. Following a weighty introduction, four thematic chapters follow the narrative arc of life and death in Siberian exile. The first focuses on the journey to Siberia and on Irkutsk’s Aleksandrovskaia transfer prison, one of the book’s two geographical loci (the other being Iakutsk). The second chapter concerns everyday life in exile, with particular attention devoted to material conditions, community networks and relations with Siberia’s native and settler populations. A third chapter examines exiles’ efforts to find work in Siberia, and their attempts to escape when such efforts failed. The fourth and final chapter deals with experiences of illness and infirmity in exile, and includes an absorbing discussion of the effects of hard labour and enforced isolation on exiles’ mental health (pp. 149-157). Much of this book’s analytical power results from its relatively short chronology. The social unrest that swept Russia after 1905 saw tens of thousands condemned to Siberian exile and hard labour (katorga), with political offenders accounting for an unprecedented 10 per cent of the region’s exile population. Badcock shows these ‘politicals’ — predominantly soldiers, workers and peasants — to have borne little resemblance to their nineteenth-century predecessors, and thereby challenges the traditional juxtaposition of political and criminal exiles, showing such categories to have been more fluid than often REVIEWS 771 supposed. The decade in question also saw mass peasant resettlement in Siberia — a policy at odds with the region’s traditional role as a penal colony. On this point, the chapter on work and escape, which demonstrates that many exiles’ escapes were in reality attempts to move around freely in search of gainful employment — thus revealing the extent to which the autocracy’s failure both to develop Siberia economically and to control its exile population were closely connected — is particularly interesting. Nonetheless, as befits history written from below, such arguments are ultimately secondary to the author’s fascination with her protagonists themselves. She emphasizes ‘the experiences of lower class and disempowered people on the peripheries of empire’ (p. 23), striving to recover their lost voices. In this she succeeds admirably. The book is a treasure trove of archival vignettes and, in all, the best account of preRevolutionary Siberian exile yet written. Badcock’s emphasis on the distinctive features of the exile system after 1905 sometimes sees her overlook illuminating continuities with the preceding period. For instance, she demonstrates the autocracy’s failure to reconcile the punishment of political offenders with its own colonizing mission by highlighting such cases as that of V. A. Voznesenskii, a political exile who found his true calling as a railway engineer in Siberia (pp. 112–13). Such tensions, however, were evident from the early nineteenth century onwards: the case of the Decembrist exile and colonial administrator Dmitrii Zavalishin is especially noteworthy, as are the contributions to Siberian life made by many of the revolutionary populists befriended by George Kennan in the...

Of Once and Future Kings: Rethinking the Anglo-American Analogy in the Rising Powers Debate

ABSTRACTThis paper seeks to advance the so-called rising powers debate of the past 15 years by interrogating its selective use of the past. Key to the debate are the impact of rising powers like China on the international order, and how to accommodate them. Historiography plays a crucial but unappreciated role in the debate, as scholars look to the past to make sense of the future. Especially in the United States, many compare the US now to Great Britain before 1940, the idea being that both faced the same difficulties of decline relative to rising challengers. This is the core case of power transition theory in the field of International Relations. It is also, fundamentally, weak. As I show, it relies on a ‘long chronology’ of British decline that the past quarter-century of historical scholarship on twentieth-century Britain has undermined. I instead propose a ‘short chronology’ of the transition away from Britain that emphasizes agency and contingency over structure and the longue durée. Bringing the work of historians to the rising powers debate thus indicates that the key factors to study are not grand systemic forces, but short-term politics and diplomacy.

ABOUT APPLICATION OF MEDIATION IN CRIMINAL CASES (FROM THE EXPERIENCE OF LAW-ENFORCEMENT PRACTICE IN FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY)

The matters in the fight against crime through a prism of foreign countries are in the centre of attention of a domestic and foreign criminal law science and lawenforcement practice. The modern science of criminal law has a theoretically reasonable doctrine answering positions and principles about a lawful state, the complete concept of punishment; however, there is an inevitable practice of wide application punishment of custodial sanction which against a steady tendency of growth of registered criminality becomes a sharp social and legal problem. In this sense experience of mediation’s application in criminal cases in court practice of Federal Republic of Germany is interesting as comparable alternative form of conflicts solution which is enough effective. Mediation means development of an extrajudicial decision for victims, a conciliation procedure for all participants of the conflict with assistance of one or several intermediaries who are independent, neutral and external persons carrying out exchange and communications function between the parties, with the purpose of conflict settlement by participants. Mediation gives the opportunity of constructive handling with criminal cases and is a good addition to traditional court practice as it means the co-operative and constructive decision of problems existing between the direct parties and contributes to internal security provision, so a share of relapses after processes of reconciliation of the criminal and a victim is much more low than in comparable cases in traditional criminal procedures. Authors describe short chronology of contemporary history of mediation, legal and organizational bases in realization of reconciliation process between a victim and the criminal being the offer of conflict settlement by means of the third participating parties.

Women, Gender, and the Palace Households in Ottoman Tunisia by Amy Aisen Kallander

248 BOOK REVIEWS / COMPTES RENDUS sultan and placed among the nobility. Usually taken at early age from ten years and over, female slaves particularly were either married to abid al-Bukhari or placed under wealthy aristocratic families for apprenticeship and future employment in the sultan’s palace. While chapter 5 reveals the various roles of slave women in Moroccan society, chapter 6 highlights the changing roles of the abid al-Bukhari and their demographic impact on the black population in Morocco. In chapter 7, El Hamel examines the protracted process of the abolition of slavery and the slave trade that followed Morocco’s ’s reluctance to succumb to European abolitionist pressure that prevailed in North Africa. The final chapter establishes links between Gnawa, referring to slaves who originated from various West African zones during the era of the slave trade, and Gnawa music, which illustrates the extent to which enslaved West Africans culturally enriched Moroccan society. Overall, this book has done well in engaging both the rich array of Arabic and European primary sources and the local Maghribi scholarship that adheres to a classic view of slavery in the Muslim context as benign and free of racial stereotypes and discrimination. The book is well written and insightful in its analysis. In terms of organization, the chapters would have aligned more evenly and neatly by dividing the book into three parts instead of two. That said, El Hamel has written a useful and important work that is bound to stimulate more research on slavery and its legacy not only in Morocco and the Maghreb region but also in the broader Muslim context. Scholars and students of slavery and the African diaspora elsewhere will find this book highly useful for its comparative value. ISMAEL M. MONTANA Northern Illinois University KALLANDER, AMY AISEN. WOMEN, GENDER, AND THE PALACE HOUSEHOLDS IN OTTOMAN TUNISIA. UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS PRESS, AUSTIN 2013 In her 2013 book Women, Gender, and the Palace Households in Ottoman Tunisia Amy Kallander, an American historian focusing on gender issues in the Middle East, examines family life in the beylical palace in Bardo, mainly in the 18th and 19th centuries. Her book is based on broad archival research in Tunisia and France, and Kallander’s carefully scrutinised source material consists of account books, diplomatic correspondence and accounts by European diplomats and travellers, which she supports with a number of maps, reproductions of drawings and colonial postcards, her own photographs of the palace in Bardo, and tables and statistics. The supplementary information in the book is excellent BOOK REVIEWS / COMPTES RENDUS 249 and consists of a short chronology of the important dates, a glossary, index, and three appendices which greatly facilitate the reading process, especially the one presenting the genealogy of the families covered in the book. In this study of the social history of an elite family, Kallander covers a wide range of topics, ranging from Orientalism and marriage politics to the history of food, and she refreshingly points out the many similarities between palace life in Tunisia and the European monarchies. Among other things, she provides detailed descriptions of how the Tunisian beys and their families lived; in what quarters and with whom they lived; how they organised their days and financed their lives; how they travelled, married, and entertained – and, most importantly, what their political influence was in Ottoman Tunisia. According to Kallander, during that period Bardo housed around 1500 inhabitants belonging to the family and entourage of the bey, with the whole household comprising 4000 people at its peak. She observes that the 1500 members of the beylical family lived separately, divided into individual family units. Through the many details that she provides, Kallander paints a stimulating and convincing picture of court culture under the Husaynid family. In addition to palace life, Kallander also analyses the question of female agency, i.e. the various ways in which women belonging to the palace could attain and sustain different forms of power, as well as the European reaction to their influence. Kallander’s book historicises the pre-colonial and colonial obsession with women’s status, which, she claims, during the 19th century became “increasingly a barometer by which foreigners judged Tunisian civilization...