University of Florida Press: Journals
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Nepal and the Middle East: Nonalignment and Economic Interests
No full textNepal is a poor, nonaligned, landlocked country surrounded by India and China that has had good relations with both Israel and the Arab states due in large part to a foreign policy conducted on the basis of Panchasheel, composed of five principles: (1) mutual respect for each other’s territorial integrity and sovereignty, (2) noninterference in each other’s internal affairs, (3) respect for mutual equality, (4) nonaggression and peaceful settlements of disputes, and (5) cooperation for mutual benefit. This outlook has also motivated Nepal’s participation in many United Nations peacekeeping operations. Originally the object of a rivalry between Egypt and Israel, Nepal has attracted the attention of a number of other Middle Eastern states, particularly those in the Arab Gulf region, as witnessed by increasing diplomatic interactions and transportation connections with Nepal and/or its officials especially in recent years, while Nepalis provide much-needed labor for many of those same countries. Despite numbers of cases of worker abuse in the Middle East, Nepali laborers there provide remittances essential for families dealing with difficult living conditions in Nepal as well as a source of foreign revenue for that country
Trying in Many Ways to Persuade: Agency and Local Politics in a Nineteenth-Century Iron Mining Scheme
No full textRelying on Chinese county gazetteers and contemporary publications by Western engineers working in China, this article examines the methods used by county officials to secure property needed for the Daye iron mine in Hubei Province. It focuses on a young scholar-turned magistrate, Lin Zuo, who grew up around the market city of Shanghai and the political center in Beijing under the dual clouds of imperialism and the Taiping Rebellion. Upon taking office in a remote but mineral-rich county along the Yangzi river, Lin Zuo was deputed to deterritorialize significant parts of the county’s rice fields and mountain farms to facilitate a modern iron ore mine and adjoining railroad that became part of the powerful Hanyeping Coal and Iron Company. To this end, he hired local gentry to coerce or force various landowners to give up lands that were deemed rich in minerals or suited for a proposed train track that skirted the southern face of Tieshan (Iron Mountain). Conversely, commoners utilized ingenious negotiating methods to fight back against the power of the imperial government, which led the county leaders to look elsewhere for properties and in some cases forced the government to pay much higher prices for the tracts they needed most. This article suggests that this significant modernization scheme was brought about in part utilizing the trappings of patronage-led county government policies but that even as it was designed to strengthen the empire, in fact it actually weakened the local community, leaving many landless if not impoverished. It therefore questions recent scholarship that looks more positively at late nineteenth-century industrialization attempts or critically at policies that undermined them
A Message from the Editor: Between North and South: Thinking about the Semi-Periphery
Get PDFOnce again, the Association of Global South Studies is preparing to host its annual conference, this time in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia. While I will not be in attendance, the fact of its location has had me wondering where we might place such a country in the Global North–South framework. Certainly, we would not place it in the Global South. It is, after all, a member state of the European Union, a Western-oriented democracy with a developing capitalist economy and a reasonable standard of living. None of those characteristics square with the common image of underdevelopment and poverty we tend to associate with the Global South. Yet it doesn’t quite find a home in our image of the Global North, either. Bulgaria, like many Eastern Bloc states, has held a kind of in-between status since the days of Soviet domination. Bulgaria’s integration into the community of European nations has been quite recent: it has been a member state of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) only since 2004 and of the European Union since 2007, where it remains the only state with less than a “very high” Human Development Index rating. Still, despite its lagging status vis-à-vis other European nations, it has made great strides, perhaps owing more to its affiliations with dominant European institutions than to the dynamism of its own economy
Using Stable Nitrogen Isotope Ratios from Human Skeletal Muscle Tissue for Postmortem Interval (PMI) Estimation (Part 1)
No full textHuman skeletal muscle tissue was analyzed for stable nitrogen isotope analysis (δ15N) to test the applicability of changes in values (Δ15N) through the putrefaction process for postmortem interval (PMI) estimation. Seasonal differences in Δ15N values of decom-posing skeletal muscle tissue were analyzed from 20 human donors at the University of Tennessee Anthropology Research Facility. This study revealed that change in the δ15N ratios of decomposing muscle tissue has potential as a novel method for PMI estimation. In winter months, when identifiable muscle tissue can be retained on a body for months, the data indicate that there is a systematic increase in Δ15N values with increasing temperatures when putrefaction progresses faster with values shifting as much as 3.0‰. This initial study indicates there is value in further method development of this quantitative approach to PMI estimation for recently deceased individuals, but further work is needed. While the analysis only requires a small amount of tissue, has a user- friendly collection and analysis protocol, and is less subjective than visual methods, there is still significant research to be done prior to widespread applications as a PMI estimation method. Understanding variability in δ15N across decomposing muscle tissue groups, individual variation (i.e., muscle mass, disease, body chem-istry), and an accurate approximation for a perimortem δ15N value necessary to calculate Δ15N all need to be further researched prior to generation of a reliable regression formula and error rates
Business-Entity Charitable Workarounds
No full textIn 2017 Congress enacted a controversial $10,000 cap on individual deductions for state and local taxes. States initially responded by enacting charitable workarounds which invited individual taxpayers to convert capped § 164 deductions for state income taxes into uncapped § 170 deductions for contributions to charitable organizations in exchange for state income tax credits that reduced or eliminated state tax liability. Final regulations under § 170 shut down the tax shelter by treating state tax credits received in exchange for charitable payments as a quid pro quo, reducing or eliminating any charitable deduction. In 2020, acceding to pressure from business groups and school choice advocates, the outgoing Trump administration blessed a functionally equivalent business-entity charitable workaround which circumvents the SALT cap by exploiting discontinuities under §§ 162, 164 and 170. Passthrough owners obtain an ordinary § 162 business deduction for entity-level payments to § 170 organizations, coupled with passthrough of state tax credits that reduce or eliminate the owners’ state income tax liability. The Treasury can and should close this loophole by requiring a separate statement, subject to the § 164(b)(6) limit, of entity-level deductions attributable to payments to charitable organizations that generate state ncome tax credits. Whether or not Congress retains the SALT cap, passthrough owners should not be permitted to convert nondeductible individual state income taxes into fully deductible business expenses
Forgotten Children: The Fetal and Infant Skeletal Remains of the W. D. Trotter Anatomy Museum, New Zealand
No full textFetal and infant skeletal remains in anatomical collections remain an underutilized yet important source of information on the interactions of gender, class, and religion during pregnancy and infant loss. The W. D. Trotter Anatomy Museum at the University of Otago in New Zealand, founded in the nineteenth century, houses more than 2,000 models and anatomical “specimens,” with many of the skeletal remains lacking provenience information. This research aimed to both provide an inventory of the fetal and infant skeletal remains and identify through archival analysis the social context of those whose remains were obtained by the museum. An osteological analysis was carried out to assess the minimum number of individuals (MNI), estimate age-at-death, and provide evidencefor pathology and dissection. The results are interpreted in the context of the archival accession data and historical information at the time to provide the social context in which these people lived and therefore information that may be related to their deaths and acquisition of their bodies by the university. Most of the infants within the collection died around the time of full-termbirth, and some individuals have evidence for developmental pathology, birth trauma, and/or postmortem dissection. The historical context and legislation around body donation suggests structural inequality played a role in the acquisition of these infants’ remains from mothers (primarily poor and/or unmarried women) and that these remains went through a process of commodification and objectification and were retained as developmental teaching “specimens” and examples of pathology
Orientalizing the East: The West’s Misrepresentation of Rumi’s Poetry
No full textThis paper critically examines Coleman Barks’ translations of Rumi’s poetry, focusing on the cultural and religious fidelity of his interpretations. It questions whether Barks’ Americanized versions do justice to the original texts or if they dilute the essence of Rumi’s work, exploring the impacts on the cultural and religious nuances of the poetry. Through comparative analysis, it is argued that Barks’ translations often strip Rumi’s verses of their Islamic context and Persian cultural roots, aiming for a universal appeal at the expense of authenticity. Key examples demonstrate Barks’ tendency to omit or alter religious references, thereby reshaping Rumi’s intent and the cultural significance of his work. This inquiry delves into the broader implications of such translation practices, suggesting a form of spiritual and literary colonialism that privileges Western perspectives while marginalizing the source culture’s scholarship and religious depth. The paper calls into question the ethical and cultural responsibilities of translators in handling works deeply embedded in religious and cultural identities
Four Contemporary Love Poems by Zhang Zhihao
No full textZhang Zhihao (张执浩), poet and novelist, was born in 1965 in Jingmen, Hubei. He graduated from the history department of the Central China Normal University in 1988. Author of nine poetry collections, several novels, and some influential essays, Zhang has won numerous poetry awards, including Poet of the Year (2014), the annual Chen Zi’ang Poetry Award (2016), and the Luxun Literary Prize for poetry (2017, Chinese equivalent to the Pulitzer). He is currently editor-in-chief of Chinese Poetry, a quarterly poetry magazine in Wuhan, China. The four poems translated here center on the theme of genuine love and the yearning for such love; they provide an opportunity to access the writings of a major poet in the contemporary Chinese poetic landscape