bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
l’oracle et l’hoplite:les élites sacerdotales et l’effort de guerre sous les dynasties égyptiennes indigenes
Authors: Agut-Labordère Damien 
Published: December 2011

Abstract
This work proposes a new interpretation of the Chapter 10 of the so called Demotic Chronicle, an oracular text written in Egyptian Demotic and dated from the end of the IVth century BC. A gloss concerning the rule of Nektanebo I denounces the fiscal reforms of the Crown to finance the containment of the Achaemenid assaults against Egypt. This passage finds an echo with the reform of the Egyptian tax system undertaken by the Athenian Chabrias quoted by the Pseudo Aristotle. Both show that the necessity of the payment of a mercenary army drove to an improvement of taxation which prefigures the Ptolemaic reforms of the IIId century B.C.
Securing and Developing the Southwestern Region: The Role of the Cham and Malay Colonies in Vietnam (18th-19th centuries)
Authors: Weber Nicolas 
Published: December 2011

Abstract
This article traces the history of the Cham and Malay military colonies in the southwestern provinces of Vietnam, from their creation in the eighteenth century to their dismantling during the last decades of the nineteenth century. The colonies were meant to protect the Khmero-Vietnamese border and secure Vietnamese positions in the southwestern regions (formerly part of Cambodia), as well as in eastern Cambodia. The study of the Chams and Malays in southern Vietnam sheds new light on the dynamics of power, the struggles for supremacy, and inter-ethnic associations during the process of state-building in Southeast Asia.
Beyond the Urban-Rural Divide: Complexities of Class, Status and Hierarchy in Bankok
Authors: Vorng Sophorntavy 
Published: December 2011

Abstract
The Thai political conflict is often described in terms of an urban-rural class divide. Using an emic, ethnographic approach, I problematise this analysis by examining Bangkokian notions of class and status differentiation. These have their bases in the feudal sakdina era as well as notions of Buddhist hierarchy, and privilege cosmopolitanism, foreignness and wealth, as encapsulated by such hybrid concepts as ‘inter’ and ‘hi-so’ — both of which are adopted from the English language phrases ‘international’ and ‘high society’, respectively. Such notions cannot adequately be explained in terms of Western-centric concepts of class, yet are nevertheless shaped by Thailand’s historical engagement with Western powers as well as subsequent processes of globalization. Furthermore, status appraisal in Bangkok includes nuanced distinctions of consumption, education, ethnicity, and occupation, amongst other things, while simultaneously having a situational characteristic. This compels us to examine a variety of factors beyond the urban-rural divide in the discussion of the ongoing crisis.
Tricks and Truths of Drug Marketing: An Insider’s Experience of an Indian Pharmaceutical Organization
Authors: Banerjee Abhradip , Das Arnab , Chakrabarti Gopalkrishna 
Published: December 2011

Abstract
The present article aims at providing some detailed insights into the cultural and ethical dimensions of pharmaceutical sales and marketing practices in India. The first author had six months of experience in the field of pharmaceutical marketing. This experience has been used as a means to understand the complementary elements of the subject concerned like business-network, strategies, roles and relations of various stakeholders, nature of exchange as well as intentions around transactions and practices from an insider’s perspective. By a continuous interpretation of multiple layers of consciousness implicit within the first author’s experience and with systematic recreation of his reactions, this article shows how Indian drug representatives are trained, what they do on a daily basis and also about their socialization process within corporate culture which has long eluded the anthropological studies of pharmaceuticals. Thus, it provides an ethnographic perspective or representation of how the networks, relations and ideologies are structured and organized, and in general, how things work in the Indian pharmaceutical industry.
Business-State Relations in the Differentiated Private Sector in Vietnam: Access to Capital and Land
Authors: Thomsen Lotte 
Published: December 2011

Abstract
This paper examines private businesses’ access to land and capital in Vietnam. It finds that the allocation of these resources to private firms is still excessively state-driven and personalised, and examines the links that business people of different ethnical and regional backgrounds have with the state and how this facilitates or hinders their access to land and capital. Lacking relationships with the state may have profound consequences for unconnected private enterprises, which are accordingly subject to uneven competition from connected ones. The paper suggests that private businesses’ uneven opportunities are basically a consequence of the general history of the country and the role that individual business people have played in it, in such respects as having had former state-sector employment, party membership, the “side” they were on before and during the Vietnam War etc. In this, factors such as ethnicity, origin and present location in either northern or southern Vietnam play an important part.
Being Special, Becoming Indigenous: Dilemmas of Special Adat Rights in Indonesia
Authors: Tyson Adam 
Published: December 2011

Abstract
From 1998 onwards Indonesia’s reform era (reformasi) has captured the imagination of growing numbers of observers, experts and scholars. Policies of decentralisation and enhanced public participation projects have reawakened old debates surrounding indigenous rights, power and status. This article examines the dilemma of special rights, particularly those related to the political revival of customs and traditions (adat istiadat). Calls for exigent recognition and redistributive rights for particular groups and ‘unique’ village communities frequently take the form of indirect regulatory negotiations and direct struggles for land. Case studies from Sulawesi are therefore used to examine heavily contested processes of decentralisation and local autonomy, which in many respects enable the revival of local adat. Distinctions are made between static and fluid views of adat, between being special by virtue of birthright on the one hand, and becoming indigenous by way of deliberate political intervention and mobilisation on the other.
Ministerial and Parliamentary Elites in an Executive-Dominated System: Post-Soviet Russia 1991–2009
Authors: Semenova Elena 
Published: December 2011

Abstract
This article analyzes the recruitment and circulation of ministerial and parliamentary elites in Russia from the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991 until 2009. The social backgrounds and careers of all ministers in 13 cabinets (1991–2009) and all members of the State Duma during its five terms after 1993 are studied. Especially during Vladimír Putin’s presidency (2000–2008), a shift toward super-presidentialism altered the circulation and composition of ministerial and parliamentary elites. Cabinets in Moscow consisted increasingly of ministers recruited from state bureaucracies, while the State Duma more and more contained businessmen, party politicians, and celebrities who appeared to treat MP service as simply an episode in their wider careers.
Does Personality Matter in Politics? Personality Factors as Determinants of Parliamentary Recruitment and Policy Preferences
Authors: Best Heinrich 
Published: December 2011

Abstract
This article inquires into the impact of personality factors on the selection and self-selection of parliamentary elites. I compare personality profiles of German MPs and the German population obtained through survey research, and for some comparisons I utilize elite and mass samples matched for education, gender, and age. I ask further if MPs’ personalities have an impact on their preferences for expansionist or restricted government budgets and welfare state benefits, the extension or limitation of civic rights, and several other policies. Party affiliations of MPs are used as a control variable. I find that MPs’ personality traits differ strikingly from those of the German population and from those of followers in most of the parties with which MPs are affiliated.
Do Ruling Elites Degenerate? American and British Elites Through Pareto’s Lens
Authors: Higley John , Pakulski Jan 
Published: December 2011

Abstract
Using Machiavelli’s metaphors, Vilfredo Pareto theorized that over time psychosocial propensities of ruling elites – manifested by predominant personality traits, mentalities, beliefs, and actions – are those of “foxes” or “lions”. Either propensity renders a ruling elite, especially its leaders, prone to bias, closure, and cumulating blunders. This degenerative process leads to a severe economic-political crisis and wide elite circulation, during which groups and persons disposed toward the opposite propensity gain power. Pareto’s theory has much intuitive appeal, but its breadth and elasticity, together with the empirically elusive qualities of elites, risk tendentious applications. Taking this risk, we examine what through Pareto’s lens appear to be cycles of circulation and degeneration among American and British elites since shortly after World War II.
Demonology during the Late Pharaonic and Greco-Roman Periods in Egypt
Authors: Lucarelli Rita 
Published: December 2011

Abstract
This paper gives an overview of the beliefs in demons as perceived by the ancient Egyptians during the later phases of the Pharaonic period and under the Greco and Roman rule. It focuses in particular on the so-called “guardian demons” represented and named on the walls of the Ptolemaic temples such as the temple of Hathor at Dendera. These figures of protectors are in fact later reinterpretations of the demonic guardians of the doors and regions of the netherworld as described in the so-called Book of the Dead. Through this and other examples taken from iconographic and textual sources mentioning demons, it is discussed how the conception and ritual practices concerning “demons” changes significantly in Greco-Roman Egypt as compared to the earlier Pharaonic period.
The Iconographic Program of the Sculptures of Alacahöyük
Authors: Taracha Piotr 
Published: December 2011

Abstract
The iconographic program of the sculptured friezes flanking the Sphinx Gate of Alacahöyük is analyzed based on numerous representations in Hittite art that may contribute to the understanding of the context and meaning of these carvings. It is argued that the cult and hunting scenes reflect the concept of the main triad of the Hittite state pantheon—Sun-goddess, Storm-god and Tutelary God, combining it with the new ideology of kingship of the later phase of the Empire period, which stresses the special ties between the king and the Tutelary God of the Countryside. Simultaneously, the lower frieze on the West Tower depicts the royal couple officiating at a cult ceremony presumably during a real local festival. Concerning the identification of Alacahöyük with one of Hittite holy towns, Arinna appears the best candidate. In fact, texts relating to the cult from Arinna enable us to interpret the Alacahöyük sculptures. These sculptures might represent the celebrations during the Great Festival in Arinna, which—as we know from the texts—was attended by the royal couple. There are historical and cultural arguments for dating the Sphinx Gate complex with its sculptures to the second half of the 13th century BC.
A Reassessment of the Alphabetic Hurrian Text RS 1.004 (KTU 1.42): A Ritual Anointing of Deities?
Authors: Lam Joseph 
Published: December 2011

Abstract
This study provides a reassessment of RS 1.004 (KTU 1.42), the longest known Hurrian text in the alphabetic cuneiform script, in light of its recurring formulae and overall structure. The key phrase in the text is ı̉d̠r ḫd̠r ḫd̠ld̠ DN, which stands at the beginning of each of its 17 sections; based on comparisons with the language of the bilingual Hittite-Hurrian itkalzi-ritual, it is likely that each of these instances refers to an act of anointing by oil of the DN in question. Other formulaic elements in the text, as well as the place of this ritual in the context of Ugarit and the broader ancient Near East, will also be discussed.
The Reversal of Fortune Theme in Esther: Israelite Historiography in Its Ancient Near Eastern Context
Authors: Winitzer Abraham 
Published: December 2011

Abstract
This paper examines the idea of reversal in Esther, arguably the most basic thematic constituent of that work, in an attempt to understand its background and meaning. It posits for it a historical context based on a reaction to contemporary ancient Near Eastern intellectual currents. Specifically this centers on Babylonian divination, astrology in particular, whose recognition as a serious branch of scientific reasoning in the ancient world was undeniable—or so it seems. The Book of Esther, which, as this paper demonstrates, manifests an unmistakable familiarity with this divinatory lore, itself partakes in the broader conversation. But, in accordance with its overring theme, it comes down on the matter with a reverse verdict.
Imported Bronze Vessels from the East Catacomb in the Berdyansk Barrow
Authors: Boltrik Yuri V. , Fialko Elena F. , Treister Mikhail Yu. 
Published: December 2011

AbstractThis article consists of an analysis of an imported bronze vessel, found in the East Catacomb of the Berdyansk Barrow – a funerary monument of one of the Scythiannomarchsin the region north of the Sea of Azov. The wide range of cited parallels from Scythian sites and sites of other cultures makes it possible to assume that theoinochoeand the basin from the Berdyansk Barrow belonged to one and the same set of imported metal vessels. ‘Services’ of this kind were used by representatives of the highest social stratum of various peoples of the Scythian period. The finds from the Berdyansk Barrow date from the 5thor early-4thcentury BC.
Hellenistic Court Imagery in the Early Buddhist Art of Gandhara
Authors: Galli Marco 
Published: December 2011

AbstractThe focus of the paper is on the relationship between Gandharan artistic culture and the presence of a Hellenistic court milieu during the 1stcent. before and after CE in the territories of Ancient Uḍḍīyāna. What emerges from new literary and archaeological evidences are significant interactions between artistic production and the evergetism made by the princes of Apraca and Oḍi: many evidences demonstrate the substantial involvement as donors of these local dynasties in the construction of the sacred landscape. What influence did these local dynasties have in the structuring of religious communication? How was this local power and his Hellenistic background reflected in the images and complex decorative Buddhist monuments? In order to understand the dynamics between power and religious communication in the sacred space of Early Gandharan society not only some well-known iconographic themes are now interpreted as self-representations of an aristocratic habitus, but also the presence of a ‘beholder in the image’ is detected as powerful visual strategy to stage the religious experience as a suggestive ritual performance.
How to Be a Good Muslim Wife: Women’s Performance of Islamic Authority during Swahili Weddings
Authors: Thompson Katrina Daly 
Published: December 2011

Abstract
The existing literature on women of the Swahili Coast has focused largely on their involvement in activities labeled as non-Islamic by both male peers and scholars. However, Islam plays an important role in these women’s lives and they often bring Islamic knowledge to bear on their participation in seemingly secular activities. In this study I address women’s role as sex instructors with a specific focus on instructing a bride in contemporary Swahili weddings. Contextualizing participant observation within the existing literature on Swahili puberty rituals, sex instruction, weddings, and language ideologies, I find that the ritual involves a discursive performance of Islamic knowledge and thereby offers women who act as instructors a form of religious authority. This provides an important counterpoint to decontextualized representations of Swahili Islam as excluding women from positions of authority.
The Spirit’s Wish: Possession Trance and Female Power among the Punu of Congo-Brazzaville
Authors: Plancke Carine 
Published: December 2011

Abstract
Among the rural Punu of Congo-Brazzaville, possession trance is an essential part of the mainly female celebrations dedicated to the bayisi or water spirits. It is a privileged medium through which these spirits reveal their wishes and conditions their willingness to assure the community’s well-being. On the human side, in order to be possessed an ‘opening of the mind’ is requested and needs to be activated through collective song-dance performances that recall the flowing motions of the spirits’ water world and convey the longing for this maternal universe. As a critique of the predominant use of the term ‘agency’ in reference to autonomy and resistance, this paper adheres to a context-based view that relies on the way the actors experience the phenomenon. In line with the Punu reality this paper considers receptivity, in its ambivalent link to suffering, as the main source of the power these possessions grant to women.
The Predynastic Dancing Egyptian Figurine
Authors: Relke Joan 
Published: December 2011

Abstract
In 1962, Peter Ucko wrote his landmark work, The Interpretation of Prehistoric Anthropomorphic Figurines, challenging and permanently changing the prevailing view of prehistoric figurines as representations of a universal great mother goddess. His work focused on the Predynastic figurines of Egypt, and concluded that there was nothing divine about them. They were probably dolls, ancestor figures, talismanic pregnancy aids, tools for sex instruction and puberty rites, twin substitutes in graves and concubine grave figurines. Since then, this group of figurines has received minimal attention. Using Ucko’s four-stage methodology, this study more closely examines these figurines in the context of Ancient Egyptian culture and religion, with specific attention to the contemporary Sudanese religious beliefs and practices, which may share roots with Predynastic Egyptian culture. This study concludes that some Dynastic religious beliefs and iconography relating to female deities can be recognised in many of these figurines, and can be traced back to prehistoric Nilotic rituals.
Spiritist Mediumship as Historical Mediation: African-American Pasts, Black Ancestral Presence, and Afro-Cuban Religions
Authors: Pérez Elizabeth 
Published: December 2011

Abstract
The scholarship on Afro-Atlantic religions has tended to downplay the importance of Kardecist Espiritismo. In this article I explore the performance of Spiritist rituals among Black North American practitioners of Afro-Cuban religions, and examine its vital role in the development of their religious subjectivity. Drawing on several years of ethnographic research in a Chicago-based Lucumí community, I argue that through Spiritist ceremonies, African-American participants engaged in memory work and other transformative modes of collective historiographical praxis. I contend that by inserting gospel songs, church hymns, and spirituals into the musical repertoire of misas espirituales, my interlocutors introduced a new group of beings into an existing category of ethnically differentiated ‘spirit guides’. Whether embodied in ritual contexts or cultivated privately through household altars, these spirits not only personify the ancestral dead; I demonstrate that they also mediate between African-American historical experience and the contemporary practice of Yorùbá- and Kongo-inspired religions.
Presumptive Eruv and the Percolation Transition
Authors: Savit Robert 
Published: December 2011

Abstract
In this paper I show that, under certain circumstances, it is reasonable to assume the existence of a physical boundary that will constitute a kosher, physical eruv around a Jewish community (presumptive eruv) without having to explicitly construct, or even identify the eruv route. The basis for this contention lies in an important physical phenomenon called the “percolation transition.” The central idea is associated with the problem of finding a long connected path that traverses a given area if the elements of the path (short elements that are co-joined to make up the long connected path) occur randomly with some fixed probability. If the probability of finding these short elements is very small then there will almost never be a long traversing path. But if the probability of finding the short elements is somewhat higher (but still not extremely large), studies of the percolation transition show that one will almost always be able to find a long traversing path. The short elements here are the walls, fences, embankments, wires, etc. that can constitute portions of the eruv, and the traversing path is the eruv itself. This paper presents the central idea of the percolation transition, exhibits its application to eruv, and briefly discusses some of the practical and halachic issues presumptive eruv raises.
Mantids in the Mist – Taxonomy of the Andean genus Pseudopogonogaster Beier, 1942, a cloud forest specialist, with notes on its biogeography and ecology (Mantodea: espidae: Miopteryginae)
Authors: Rivera Julio , Yagui Hiromi , Ehrmann Reinhard 
Published: December 2011

AbstractThe Neotropical lichen mimicking mantid genus Pseudopogonogaster Beier, 1942 is revisited and re-described. The examination of the type species, P. mirabilis Beier, 1942, the first described species of this lineage, allowed us to determine that those species currently included in Pseudopogonogaster and Calopteromantis Terra, 1982 are all congeneric. As a result, the genus Calopteromantis is now considered to be a junior synonym of Pseudopogonogaster. Accordingly, Calopteromantis hebardi Terra, 1982 and Calopteromantis marulandae Salazar, 2002 are transferred to Pseudopogonogaster. The species Calopteromantis otongica Lombardo & Ayala, 1998 from Ecuador was also found to be a synonym of P. mirabilis. In addition, a new species from northwestern Peru, Pseudopogonogaster kanjaris, is described herein, thus constituting a new genus and species record for this country. Analysis of the distribution of the six recognized species of Pseudopogonogaster suggests that this genus is endemic to the mountain forests of Colombia, Ecuador and northern Peru and its members are specialized inhabitants of epiphytic vegetation, exhibiting unique morphological and chromatic adaptations to these habitats. The newly available information on Pseudopogonogaster also allowed to determine that Calopteromantis terrai Jantsch, 1994, described from Mato Grosso, Brazil, is actually a member of the genus Eumiopteryx Giglio-Tos, 1915 (espidae: Pseudomiopteriginae) and, thus, is transferred to this genus as E. terrai (Jantsch, 1994) comb.n.
A new genus of Compactopediina (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae) associated with Longipeditermes (Isoptera: Termitidae) in Peninsular Malaysia with a key to and phylogenetic analysis of all genera of the subtribe
Authors: Kanao Taisuke , Maruyama Munetoshi , Hashim Rosli 
Published: December 2011

Abstract
Kistnerella malayensis Kanao & Maruyama, gen. et sp.n. (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Aleocharinae) is described from Ulu Gombak, Selangor, Peninsular Malaysia. This new genus belongs to the termitophilous subtribe Compactopediina in the tribe Aleocharini, and is associated with Longipeditermes longipes (Haviland, 1889) (Isoptera: Termitidae: Nasutitermitinae). A key to the genera in Compactopediina is given. The phylogenetic relationships of the genera are investigated, and the host termite relationships and the systematic position of Compactopediina are discussed.