Cultural Specialists Research Articles

Monitoring salmon aquaculture waste: The contribution of First Nations’ rights, knowledge, and practices in British Columbia, Canada

Abstract British Columbia's current approach to monitoring salmon aquaculture waste is disconnected from political and legal trends towards the recognition of Aboriginal rights in Canada. Drawing on insights from collaborative monitoring in northern Canada and interviews with 23 Kwakwaka’wakw clam-diggers and cultural specialists (2006–2007), preliminary directions for integrating First Nations’ values, knowledge and stewardship practices into marine environmental monitoring are identified. Kwakwaka’wakw monitoring practices include the use of qualitative individual, community and population scale indicators and the integration of traditional knowledge as baseline data about the healthy conditions of traditional food resources.

Computeriation of multi-parametrical pedagogical control in physical culture specialists education

Computeriation of multi-parametrical pedagogical control in physical culture specialists education

The Necessity of a System of "Specialists in Religious Culture" and Its Outline((Committee-Sponsored Panel)Meaning and Possibility of "Specialists in Religious Culture" (Tentative Title),Panels,THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE SIXTY-SIXTH ANNUAL CONVENTION OF THE JAPANESE ASSOCIATION FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES)

The Necessity of a System of "Specialists in Religious Culture" and Its Outline((Committee-Sponsored Panel)Meaning and Possibility of "Specialists in Religious Culture" (Tentative Title),Panels,THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE SIXTY-SIXTH ANNUAL CONVENTION OF THE JAPANESE ASSOCIATION FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES)

From the Margins to the Mainstream The Curious Convergence of Pierre Bourdieu and US Sociology

xThe late French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu is a prominent figure in the field of sociology in the United States today. Practically all of his major empirical monographs have been translated into English. His writings are regularly cited in articles appearing in the discipline’s main journals. Several books about his life and work have been published by major American university presses. And, perhaps most tellingly, many of his major concepts have entered the general sociological lexicon in the United States. One need not be a specialist in culture or education to understand the significance of “cultural capital” for reproducing inequality across generations. No longer a philosophical or social psychological oddity, the idea of the “habitus” informs research across a variety of subfields. And few are the sociologists in the US today who are not familiar with Bourdieu’s use of the “field” concept to describe various meso-social orders. The extent to which the ideas of Pierre Bourdieu have been integrated into and become integral to the practice of sociology in the US today can be considering surprising for a number of reasons. His work is highly theoretical and integrates ideas from a variety of fields; while US sociology has long been characterized as an empirical and relatively insular discipline [Ross 1991; Gulbenkian Commission 1996]. Indeed, US sociology has proved relatively impermeable to several other Francophonic traditions (the early canonization of Emile Durkheim notwithstanding), for the most

Ome Proposals Related to the Certification Board for Social Researchers((Committee-Sponsored Panel)Meaning and Possibility of "Specialists in Religious Culture" (Tentative Title),Panels,THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE SIXTY-SIXTH ANNUAL CONVENTION OF THE JAPANESE ASSOCIATION FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES)

ome Proposals Related to the Certification Board for Social Researchers((Committee-Sponsored Panel)Meaning and Possibility of "Specialists in Religious Culture" (Tentative Title),Panels,THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE SIXTY-SIXTH ANNUAL CONVENTION OF THE JAPANESE ASSOCIATION FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES)

The content of functional interaction between specialists in physical culture in the military profession

The content of functional interaction between specialists in physical culture in the military profession

Kenneth E. Wilkening, Acid rain science and politics in Japan: a history of knowledge and action toward sustainability

This is a very interesting book and Wilkening is an interesting writer. Focused entirely on what the author calls ‘‘the arcane history of acid deposition problems in Japan’’, the book opens in the first page with a description of Japan’s geography and ‘‘culture of rain’’ so vivid and poetic that the reader can almost see a painting rather than words. The reader is quickly shaken off this by the author with his statement, in bullets, of his rationale for the book, but is once again captivated by his brief description of the evolution of this intellectual project. Towards the end of the first chapter when Wilkening describes his intended audiences—‘‘scholars in the fields of environmental science, political science, specialists in history, Asian history and Japanese culture ... and nonspecialist audience...those who desire greater insight into the modern struggle to attain sustainability’’ (p. 6), one starts to worry if he is not overreaching a bit. Wilkening closes the first chapter with a caution that ‘‘those not well versed in environmental science will find some portions of the book difficult reading’’ and encourages them to ‘‘persevere or to skim’’. Interestingly, this reviewer (who has a background in chemistry and environmental management) had tremendous difficulty reading the non scientific part of the book, specifically the second chapter (Sustainable Science, Politics and the Environment). This chapter describes the intellectual history of the book and explains the analytic framework and associated concepts used throughout. A 66-word definition (in one sentence) of what constitutes an ‘‘environmental problemframework’’ did not seem warranted. Nor was it helpful, even when it was followed by a page of additional explanation. Re-reading the definition a few more times did nothing. The long-windedness was complicated by Wilkening’s tendency towards reification. By the time I got to the 84-word definition of ‘‘bridging object’’ I was ready to set the book aside for a while. Fortunately I had to pick up the book again. What great learning opportunity I would have missed! Chapter 3 is an overview of the book and shows how familiar the author is with the country and how careful a researcher he is. The ‘‘science’’ part of the book, which is the rest of it, is absolutely fascinating. Rich and meticulous, sometimes poignant description of the creativity of Japanese scientists particularly during the preand early post-war period shows the author’s patient use of primary and secondary information sources. Wilkening describes the political struggle of communities whose livelihoods were severely impacted by industrial acid deposition and shows how Japanese culture shapes its politics. As does his analysis of when and why Japan joined the international fora on acid rain. His description of the responses of civil servants, politicians and corporations to the acid deposition crises paint a familiar picture to those of us who have been involved in environmental advocacy. The appendix shows the same care and thoroughness with which Wilkening carried out the research for the book. The references are invaluable. This book is a must for those in the environmental community who want to gain a better understanding of the science-public policy interface. Whether or not one agrees with Wilkening’s vision of sustainability and sustainable societies, Acid Rain Science and Politics in Japan succeeds in demonstrating one of his assertions—‘‘good environmental policy requires sound science, and sound science requires astute political support’’. N. T. Yap (&) School of Environmental Design and Rural Development, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada N1G 2W1 e-mail: nyap@rpd.uoguelph.ca

The Rise of `New' Social Classes within the Service Class in The Netherlands

The employment structure of The Netherlands and other advanced countries is evolving from industrial to postindustrial. Yet existing social class schemata, like the well-known Erikson, Goldthorpe and Portocarero (EGP) class schema, were constructed for an industrial employment structure. In this study, we adjust the EGP class schema to account for this transformation by using new class theories. We distinguish a `new' class of social and cultural specialists and an `old' class of technocrats with both a higher and a lower version in the service class. Our research question concerns the extent to which the adjusted EGP class schema is a better predictor of people's political orientation than the standard EGP class schema. We assume that the `new' classes differ in their political orientation from the `old' classes. We also assume that, during their formation, the `new' classes become increasingly effective in explaining differences in people's political orientation. Experts' knowledge is employed to classify the occupations. In addition, we use the data of 34,856 respondents gathered between 1970 and 2003 in The Netherlands. The adjusted EGP class schema explains people's political orientation substantially better than the standard EGP class schema; the `new' classes vote significantly more for leftist parties and differ substantially in their political orientation from the `old' classes. Furthermore, our results show that the political orientation of the low-grade social and cultural specialists has become more crystallized since 1970.

Holy Households: Domestic Space, Property, and Power

Holy Households:Domestic Space, Property, and Power Kristina Sessa Holy Households began as an idea for a conference panel. I wanted to bring together four scholars who share my interest in the history of the late ancient domestic sphere, but who employ varying methodological approaches and have different areas of technical expertise. Thus I invited an archaeologist of rural, late Roman estates (Kim Bowes), an historian of Roman law (Julia Hillner), a specialist in papyrology and Egyptian material culture (Elisabeth O'Connell), as well as an expert in the cultural and social history of the early Christian family (Kate Cooper). By all accounts, the panel, which ran at the 2005 meeting of the North American Patristics Society at Loyola University in Chicago, was enormously successful. The papers collectively engaged with an aspect of domestic life that in my mind had not received sufficient attention by scholars of the late ancient Christian household: its spatial dimension.1 Their focus on the materiality of the household, not only its physical form but also its economic features, legal status, and social history as a private (i.e., individually owned and governed) institution, underlined the importance of domestic space as an analytic category in the study of topics like the development of monasticism, the ecclesiastical contestation over the independent practice of Christian rituals in the home, the histories of penance and the prison, and the reuse of pre-existing, non-Christian, and non-domestic structures (such as tombs) as Christian "homes." In sum, the papers examined the phenomenon of "Christianization" as a dialectical process that produced not a single model of the Christian home, but an extraordinary range of holy households. Three of the papers in this volume (Bowes, Hillner, and O'Connell) as well as its introduction (Cooper) feature research first presented at NAPS in 2005. My own contribution (Sessa), which was originally presented elsewhere, adds [End Page 129] yet another example of how domestic space might be approached as a topic of study for scholars interested in the history of the late ancient household. I would like to thank David Brakke for inviting me to guest-edit this special volume of JECS and for offering warm and unwavering support in the process, along with Ellen Muehlberger for her careful and thorough copyediting. I am also grateful for the enthusiastic and critical insights offered both by those who attended the panel back in 2005, and by the anonymous readers. Footnotes 1. This is not to suggest that space has been completely ignored by scholars of late antique religion and domestic life: see, for example, Cynthia Baker, Rebuilding the House of Israel: Architectures of Gender in Jewish Antiquity (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2002). Copyright © 2007 Johns Hopkins University Press and the North American Patristics Society

Maintaining Oversight of Safety Culture from Diverse Viewpoint ; Both Specialists in Safety Culture and Site/Resident Inspectors join in Workshop

Maintaining Oversight of Safety Culture from Diverse Viewpoint ; Both Specialists in Safety Culture and Site/Resident Inspectors join in Workshop

P-254: No advantage of using the sequential GIII media versus the single media Global

The sequential media system is based on the concept of the different nutritional requirements of the pre-embryo prior to and post its third day of cell culture (Gardner and Lane, 1998, review). This logic has become the mainstream of the ART lab cell culture media system. The Global media is a modification of the KSOM media, which is based on the potassium simplex optimized calculation. Recently, Biggers and Racowsky (2002) reported on a one media culture system (KSOM + amino acids) that gave similar blastocyst formation rate as the sequential media (P1◊CCM). Using mouse embryos, Biggers, et.al., (2005), reported no significant difference of mouse embryo development and delivery rates between the one-step and two-step sequential culture system. This study intends to compare the performance of the sequential GIII media system with one-step Global media in a human ART trial. A ramdomized prospective study. The Global media was purchased from IVFonline.com, Guelph, Ontario, Canada. The GIII was purchased from Vitrolife, Englewood, Colorado, U.S.A.. With the help from Mr. Michael Baird, Vitrolife’s cell culture specialist, we were familiarized with the unique GIII media culture methodology sequence. All steps were followed to the exact standards. A total 60 cycles were randomly assigned, 30 to the GIII culture system, and 30 to the Global culture system. The criteria for inclusion in this prospective random study were patient age less than 40, and no PGD case (no embryo biopsy). The parameters of hCG pregnancy, ongoing pregnancy, and blastocyst formation rate were analyzed by the Chi-Square test. The GIII media culture system had more biochemical pregnancies while the Global media system had more SAB. Since the number is very small, it is impossible to derive any conclusion. The results did not show any significant trend in favor of any of the specified media systems.Tabled 1 In our system, and with our patient population, there was no advantage of the GIII media over the Global media. The results support Bigger’s conclusion that a 2-step sequential culture protocol is sufficient for the pre-implantation pre-embryo development, and that a one, correctly supplemented media, can also do a successful job throughout the entire length of the cell culture. Apparently, the pre-embryos have some flexibility in adjusting to variations of properly supplemented culture media.

Socio-political, cultural and economic preferences and behaviour of the social and cultural specialists and the technocrats. Social class or education?

Do the social and cultural specialists differ from the technocrats and other social classes with respect to their socio-political, cultural and economic preferences and behaviour? If they do, is this attributable to their level and field of education? The social and cultural specialists are assumed to form ‚new’ social class and the technocrats ‚old’ social class. A typical social class should differentiate itself with respect to moral attitudes, socio-political behaviour and lifestyle forms. To reveal whether these assumed classes are indeed typical classes, we have studied a variety of socio-political, cultural and economic preferences and behaviour of members of these social classes using the Family Survey of the Dutch Population (FSDP) 1992, 1998, 2000 and 2003. To unravel the net differences between the social and cultural specialists and the technocrats, we controlled for the field of study, the level of education and background factors. Taking these control factors into consideration, the social and cultural specialists differentiate themselves substantially from the technocrats in their socio-political and especially economic preferences and behaviour. With respect to their cultural preferences and behaviour, they do not differ significantly from the technocrats.

Drinking Games, Karaoke Songs, and "Yangge" Dances: Youth Cultural Production in Rural China

This article examines the different ways youth in rural Shaanbei, northcentral China participate in cultural production. It explores the media through which young people express themselves and the roles that social institutions (temples, schools, villages, households), modern technologies (video compact discs), and translocal/transnational mass media (satellite and cable TV) play in enabling youth to assert their presence as cultural beings and producers. Shaanbei youth do not choose between modern forms of entertainment (karaoke songs) or traditional forms (playing drinking games), or between institutionally organized activities and those self-initiated to express themselves. (Rural Chinese youth, cultural production, temple festivals, drinking games) ********** Anthropologists have a long-standing interest in studying the socialization of children and processes of enculturation cross-culturally, yet youth culture has largely remained the preserve of sociologists and specialists of popular culture. The study of Western youth culture has its roots in studies of youth social and cultural movements in the 1960s and 1970s: the Hippies, the anti-war protests, Punks, Beatles fans, etc. (Hall and Jefferson 1976; Hebdige 1979; Skelton and Valentine 1998). Youth culture in the West seems to be predicated on a self-conscious, relatively coherent set of mental attitudes and behavioral patterns, often dubbed subcultural or counter-cultural. The most important characteristics of Western urban youth culture are the degree of expressivity (e.g., It's loud!) in terms of music, fashion, hairstyle, and manners, and the effort to counter what is perceived to be adult stiffness and conservatism. Though having originated in the West, analytical approaches for studying Western urban youth movements seem to be easily transferable to the Chinese urban context, with the May Fourth Movement and subsequent student culture as prime examples of a self-conscious Chinese urban youth culture. In recent years, the import of rock 'n' roll, disco, hip hop, and rave parties further consolidated and expanded an urban youth style distinct from adult and other cultural productions (Farrer 2002; Moore 2005). (2) One might think that because rural China is portrayed in the media as being impoverished in things cultural (wenhua pinkun), (3) its youth lack the opportunity to have or produce culture. But this depends on where in rural China one looks. In certain parts of rural China, some forms of metropolitan youth culture are emerging since urban cultural forms are rapidly penetrating rural areas, especially along the coast and the peripheries of large cities. In a village near a major urban center (Heilongjiang in northeastern China), Yan (1999) found the local rural youth culture largely derivative of urban popular culture in terms of taste and activities (e.g., billiards, music cassette tapes, printed T-shirts). In Shaanbei, many aspects of youth culture are also drawn from metropolitan pop culture. Although the more education a Shaanbei rural youth receives the more he or she is alienated from village culture and peasant knowledge, the attractiveness of traditional forms of cultural production persists with young people, especially in places like Shaanbei, where such forms of cultural production are still vibrant and popular. Yan (1999) included in his study rural youth's increased consumerism and materialism, increasing premarital sex, the assertion of individual rights and independence, resistance to parents and local state authorities, and a tendency to try new ways of life such as working in the city or traveling. As the focus of this article is on youth cultural production, other aspects of youth life are de-emphasized. Cultural production here refers to the ensemble of mostly expressive cultural activities, and not instrumental activities such as agriculture, employment, and trade. Expressive culture also includes the consumption of cultural products, such as karaoke songs and the necessary accompanying equipment. …

"Put Your Very Special Place on the North Country Map!" Community Participation in Cultural Landmarking

This article describes the evolution of a project undertaken in rural northern New York state to identify and document local cultural landmarks in diverse communities. It includes the development of concepts and strategies, the creation of documentary techniques, and a summary of public folklore presentations undertaken to explain and promote the project to local people. Key to the success of the project is the community participation in each stage. A major goal of the project is to inform local residents of the need to create and preserve a record of the architectural, social, and cultural history of sites and to take advantage of opportunities that collaborations between lay persons, professional folklorists, and other cultural specialists can provide.

"Put Your Very Special Place on the North Country Map!": Community Participation in Cultural Landmarking

Abstract This article describes the evolution of a project undertaken in rural northern New York state to identify and document local cultural landmarks in diverse communities. It includes the development of concepts and strategies, the creation of documentary techniques, and a summary of public folklore presentations undertaken to explain and promote the project to local people. Key to the success of the project is the community participation in each stage. A major goal of the project is to inform local residents of the need to create and preserve a record of the architectural, social, and cultural history of sites and to take advantage of opportunities that collaborations between lay persons, professional folklorists, and other cultural specialists can provide.

Review: <em>Unfinished Business: Race, Equity, and Diversity in Library and Information Science Education</em> edited by Maurice B. Wheeler

Unfinished Business: Race, Equity, and Diversity in Library and Information Science Education edited by Maurice B. Wheeler. Lanham: Scarecrow Press, 2005. 203 pp. ISBN 0-8108- Discovery. Colonization. Slavery. Civil war. Reconstruction. Civil rights. And finally, Brown v. Board of Education in 1954. Was this a new beginning or a false start? Race has played a salient role in the history of the United States; racism, discrimination, and the degradation of African Americans and other minorities existed in this country for more than 200 years before the peak of the Civil Rights Movement.¹ Indeed, 50 years before Brown v. Board of Education, W.E.B. Dubois proclaimed that “the problem of the twentieth-century is the problem of the color line” (1996, p. 11). Clearly, race continues to play an important role in America: almost 40 years after the historic Supreme Court decision, John Hope Franklin (1993), a prominent historian, echoed Dubois’ proclamation by stating that the problem of the twenty-first century will continue to be the color line. Like Dubois and Hope, the contributing authors of Unfinished Business: Race, Equity, and Diversity in Library and Information Science Education draw a similar conclusion—that racial inequity remains in both intellectual and professional pursuits in the field of Library and Information Science (LIS). That is not to suggest that progress has not been made; it has, but the authors pose the question, “to what extent?” Contributors, which include graduate students, practicing librarians, and experienced LIS faculty, collectively argue that despite the Brown v. Board of Education decision that occurred 50 years ago, the LIS field has never been fully integrated. Unlike most publications that argue for diversity merely because it is the right thing to do, Unfinished Business argues that diversity is necessary in order to challenge the historical patterns of institutional racism upon which many segments of American society are built. Unfinished Business successfully shows that despite efforts to integrate LIS, much more work needs to be done. In the first chapter, Elizabeth Figa, a specialist in LIS history and culture, and Janet Macpherson, a doctoral student, provide a brief yet rich historical snapshot of American libraries and library schools before and after the Brown decision. As Figa and Macpherson show, segregation was standard practice among libraries before the Brown decision: in 1948, only four states offered integrated library services for blacks and whites. After Brown, the move towards integrating libraries was slow, and the American Library Association (ALA) made few efforts to facilitate integration. In 1961, for example, the ALA approved an amendment prohibiting refusal of library services based on race, but the amendment went largely ignored. LIS education has faced similar challenges in the realm of inclusion and integration. In 1966, 4 percent of

An Interview with Joseph O'Connor

Click for larger view Figure 1 Joseph O'Connor [End Page vi] Joseph O'Connor was born in Dublin in 1963. He received a B.A. and an M.A. in English and history from University College, Dublin, and later studied at the University of Oxford. Prior to returning to Ireland, he lived in London and wrote for magazines and newspapers from 1989 to 1996. O'Connor's literary talents were evident with the publication of his first novel, Cowboys and Indians (1991), shortlisted for the Whitbread Prize. His subsequent fiction includes a collection of short stories, True Believers (1991), and four additional novels: Desperadoes (1993), The Salesman (1998), Insihowen (2000), and Star of the Sea (2002). O'Connor has also written for stage and screen—he is the author of two plays, Red Roses and Petrol (1995) and The Weeping of Angels (1997)—and has published nonfictional works such as Sweet Liberty: Travels in Irish America (1996) and two best-selling collections of comic essays, The Secret World of the Irish Male (1994) and The Irish Male at Home and Abroad (1996). Star of the Sea is this young and prolific writer's most ambitious novel. It deals brilliantly with one of the most traumatic and generally veiled episodes of Irish history, the Great Famine. The work has been a best seller as well as achieving broad acclaim from scholars and specialists in Irish literature and culture, including Terry Eagleton and Declan Kiberd. This interview took place in June 2004 in the small village of Dalkey, Ireland, where Joseph O'Connor was living at the time with his wife and two small children. Near his residence stood the Martello Tower, an emblem and witness of a previous Irish literary [End Page 161] genius, James Joyce. While the interview was taking place, all Ireland was celebrating Bloomsday 100, commemorating the hundred years that had passed since the famous date Joyce had chosen for the events described in Ulysses. O'Connor, as he acknowledges in the interview, has been positively influenced by his predecessor, but he has ultimately managed to attain a voice of his own. Q. Your consolidation as a great writer has been with your latest novel, Star of the Sea, even though you had previously published many works of fiction that critics have widely appreciated and were already popular for your brilliant and funny collections of comic essays. Star of the Sea has brought you international recognition. I was greatly impressed by the novel. It brought to mind Terry Eagleton's words in Heathcliff and the Great Hunger: Essays in Irish Culture [1995], when he mentions the scarce literary and historical material dealing with the Irish famine and asks, "Where is the Famine in the literature of the Revival? Where is it in Joyce? There is a question here, when it comes to the Revival, of the politics of form: much of that writing is programmatically non-representational, and thus no fit medium for historical realism, if indeed any fit medium for such subject matter is conceivable. Wilde, Moore and Yeats are in full flight from Nature, towards whatever style, pose, mask or persona might seem its antithesis; and the more Joyce recuperates this naturalistic region for the ends of art, the more obtrusively artificial that redemption becomes. If the Famine stirred some to angry rhetoric, it would seem to have traumatized others into muteness"[13]. In my opinion, you have successfully overcome the trauma Eagleton is alluding to; what is more, you have handled the topic in a balanced, aesthetically brilliant way, deftly employing a combination of tragedy and humor. My first question, thus, would be what it was that encouraged you to deal with such a difficult, complex, and traumatic episode of Irish history. A. Thank you, first of all, for your kind and supportive remarks, which I appreciate very sincerely. I've long been fascinated by the Famine; it's an...

Catalan and Occitan Troubadours at the Court of Alfonso VIII

CATALAN AND OCCITAN TROUBADOURS AT THE COURT OF ALFONSO VIII Antonio Sánchez Jiménez Miami University AJesfis Rodríguez Velasco. por su paciente e inteligente ayuda It is relatively unrecognized that it was a Catalan troubadour, Raimón Vidal de Besalú, who penned one of the most attractive and vivid descriptions of Alfonso VIII's court in the Castia Gilos. The text belongs to the narrative genre known as novas (Suzanne Fleischman 169),' and begins by depicting a literary soirée in which the royal patrons , Alfonso VIII the Noble, '"N-Anfós" (Manuel Mila i Fontanals 125), and his queen Eleonor of Aquitaine, "la reyn' Elionors" (Mila i Fontanals 126), listen attentively to the Catalan's poem. Raimon Vidal de Besalú dedicates die first fifteen lines of the Castia Gilos to praising Alfonso as a model of courtesy, and then proceeds to describe the graceful and beautiful queen and her rich garments: Estrecha vene en un mantel D' un drap de seda bon e bel Que hom apela sisclató Vermelhs ab lista d' argen fo E y hac un levon d' aur devis. (Milà i Fontanals 126) The Castia Gilos depicts how a Catalan troubadour visits the Castilian court and narrates to the king and his courtiers a poem in Provençal 1 The Castia Gilos, a long narrative poem in octosyllabic verses, is best described as belonging to the novas genre. Nevertheless, critics have used different words to describe the genre ofthe poem: Irenée Cluzel referred to it as a "fabliau", and Martín de Riquer called it "una novella" (Historia 1 16). La corónica 32.2 (Spring, 2004): 101-120 102Antonio Sánchez JiménezLa corónica 32.2, 2004 about die Aragonese vassal 'N-Anfós de Barbastre (Mila i Fontanals 127). Beside Vidal, many odier Catalan and Occitanian troubadours portrayed Alfonso's court as a golden age of courtesy and patronage, providing a wealth of information about the Castilian court during the late twelfth and early diirteenth centuries. Some of these troubadours were born in areas diatwe now consider part ofthepdisos catalans, which at the time belonged to die king ofAragon, count of Barcelona. Others were natives of small fiefs in the Aquitaine, a territory that lay witiiin Aragón's sphere ofpolitical and economical expansion until die disastrous battle of Muret in 1213.2 Although they lived in a region not normally associated widi Castilian culture, they obviously took an interest in Alfonso's court. This paper explores exacdy which troubadours , Catalan and Occitan, visited Alfonso Vili de Castilla's court, and why diese troubadours would be interested in Alfonso's virtues and die characteristics of his reign. This literary connection demonstrates Castilian-Aragonese cultural and political ties during die early thirteenth century. Specialists in medieval history and culture celebrate Alfonso VIII de Castilla (1 155-1214)3 for his many achievements and enterprises, both political and cultural. Alfonso's armies seized the provinces of Alava and Guipúzcoa from the kingdom of Navarra between 1 198 and 1200, and revitalized the Reconquista by defeating the Almohad Empire in die decisive batde of Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212. Alfonso also accomplished some impressive diplomatic triumphs: he engineered the definitive union of die kingdoms of Castilla and León, and played a decisive role in the peace and prosperity of die Christian regions of Western and Central Iberia. In addition to these political achievements, Alfonso's reign saw many cultural advancements as well. The twelfthcentury Renaissance reached Castilla during Alfonso's rule (José Angel García de Cortázar 167): circa 1212, Alfonso founded the Peninsula's - The count-kings dominated the land ofthe troubadours for a long time, and their influence peaked in Alfonso VIII's life. In 1 167, Alfonso II de Aragón (Alfons I in Cataluña) inherited the County ofProvence, and in 1 172 he received the County ofRoussillon. He also managed to obtain nearby Beam's and Bigorre's homage in 1 187. His son, Pedro II (Pere I in Cataluña), sought to secure his Occitanian possessions through a series ofdynastic marriages, but his premature death at Muret frustrated the Aragonese plans in Occitania...

China to Chinatown: Chinese food in the West

China to Chinatown tells the story of one of the most notable examples of the globalization of food: the spread of Chinese recipes, ingredients and cooking styles to the Western world. Beginning with the accounts of Marco Polo and Franciscan friars who travelled to the East, J.A.G. Roberts describes how Westerners' first impressions of Chinese food were decidedly mixed, with many regarding Chinese eating habits as repugnant. Chinese food was brought back to the West merely as a curiosity. The Western encounter with a wider variety of Chinese cuisine dates from the first half of the 20th century, when more extensive travel became possible. The author describes the spread of Chinese food to the West with emigrant Chinese communities and the relatively recent phenomenon of Chinese restaurants. He also evaluates its position in relation to other cooking styles, such as Indian, Mexican and Japanese, in the process showing how Chinese cooking has come to be regarded by some as among the world's most sophisticated cuisines, and yet is harshly criticized by others, for example on the grounds that its preparation involves cruelty to animals. The author concludes by examining the extent to which Chinese food, as a facet of Chinese culture overseas, has remained differentiated and questions whether its ethnic identity is dissolving. Written in a lively style, the book should appeal to food historians and specialists in Chinese culture, as well as to a wide general audience interested in Chinese cuisine.

Documenting Cultural and Historical Memory: Oral History in the National Park Service

"Documenting Cultural and Historical Memory: Oral History in the National Park Service" provides an overview and assessment of the current state of oral history projects and programs within the National Park Service. Oral history has long been a particularly valuable resource and tool for the Park Service in preserving cultural and historical memory. Its rangers, interpreters, historians, archaeologists, ethnographers, and cultural landscape specialists use oral history to document the history of individual parks, as well as the events and people the parks commemorate. They use oral history to create interpretive exhibits, movies, and videos and to record perspectives on major events, figures, and movements. The Service initiates and manages a large number of unique and significant oral history projects and programs.However, too often the value of its oral history projects and collections has been diminished because of funding shortages, poor equipment, insufficient training, inadequate preservation measures, or other problems.