Classical Greek agriculture: Recent work and alternative views

When the economic basis of a great civilisation is at issue, historians are bound to disagree strongly, and controversy can only be intensified when the available primary evidence is inadequate in both quantity and quality. Such is the case with the recent study of agriculture in the ancient Greek world. The two very different general books under review here nicely complement each other both in scope and approach, and provide an excellent introduction to the many unresolved, and too often irresolvable, questions concerning the ideology and practice, political, economic, social and religious, of ancient Greek agriculture.

Ancient Greek Agriculture: An Introduction, by Signe Isager and Jens Erik Skydsgaard. London and New York: Routledge, 1992. Pp.x + 234. £40 (hardback). ISBN 0 415 00164 1

Land and Labour in the Greek World, by Alison Burford. Baltimore, MD and London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993. Pp.x + 290. £28.50 (hardback). ISBN 0 8018 4463 0     

Classical Greek agriculture II: Two more alternative views

Since I published a review essay in this journal on the recent study of Classical Greek agriculture, focusing on two very different and even opposing attempts at synthesis [Cartledge, 1993], two further major studies in the same general field have appeared, again with different perspectives and conclusions. What one of them [Hanson, 1995] rightly calls the ‘veritable renaissance in research concerning ancient Greek agriculture and society’ shows no signs of premature ageing. Many fundamental questions, of course, remain unresolved, and are perhaps doomed to be irresolvable, but these two weighty (in all senses) tomes do seem to me to advance our understanding measurably and in potentially fruitful directions.

A Greek Countryside, by Michael H. Jameson, Curtis N. Runnels and Tjeerd van Andel. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1994; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995. Pp.xviii + 654. £84.95 (hardback). ISBN 0 8047 1608 0

The Other Greeks: The Family Farm and the Agrarian Roots of Western Civilization, by Victor Davis Hanson. New York: Free Press, 1995. $28.00 (hardback). ISBN 0 02 913751 9     

Interethnic contacts in an alternative educational environment: The Israeli Shelef project

The purpose of the study was to examine the unique interethnic contact situation provided by the Israeli Shelef project and its consequences in changes of ethnic stereotypes among Shelef participants. The study population consisted of all 49 Shelef members during the academic year 1979–1980, who resided in seven different development towns. They responded to an anonymous questionnaire which solicited information concerning their personal background and measures of interethnic relations. The data indicate that the tendency to generalize and to relate to people categorically decreased over the year and was replaced by a more individualistic approach to people different than one's own. Also, Shelef members' valuation of eastern Jews and development townspeople became higher, and their readiness to associate with them became complete and unconditional at all levels of intimacy. The implications of the project for providing adolescents with meaningful experiences, bringing the school and the real world closer together, are also discussed.Received Ph.D. in sociology from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Main interests are sociology of education, political socialization, and sociology of the family.Received M.A. in the sociology of education from Tei-Aviv University. Currently working in teachers' training in the social sciences.     

Agricultural production,social participation and domination in late eighteenth‐century Bengal: Towards an alternative explanation

This article attempts an analysis of the problems of social participation by non‐peasants in agricultural production and of the pattern of domination they shaped over the peasants. The historical context of this analysis is the Indian province of Bengal in the late eighteenth century. The problematics of non‐peasant participation and domination are historically important in as much as they focus attention upon the wider class basis of agricultural production and the nature of commercialisation in the economy. This essay also seeks to provide a critique of some analytical models which seek to establish the existence of semi‐feudalism in Bengal. The critique is based on the re‐examination of the historical evidence available; it is not intended to be a theoretical exegesis alone. Arguing against the utility of semi‐feudalism as a category for the analysis of Bengal's social formation, this article suggests an alternative explanation in terms of commercial exploitation of small‐peasants under conditions of formal subsumption of labour to capital.     

对就业培训问题的思考

就业培训是提高劳动者就业素质最直接的方式。转变就业培训观念,提高就业技能对促进实现就业具有积极作用。认清目前就业培训中出现的问题,明确就业培训发展的改革重点,以促进就业培训市场的健康有序发展,提高就业人员素养和技能,改善就业压力和企业活力。帮助劳动者进行有效的自我评估、职业开发和职业决策,为迈向职业生涯做好预期准备。     

访日归来话感受

20 0 1年 6月 1 7日至 6月 2 4日 ,我们一行数人 ,对日本东海生活协同〈下称东海生协〉组合事业进行了友好访问和交流。东海生协是日本生活协同组合中的一个较大的地域性生协组织 ,处于日本的中心位置 ,由名古屋勤劳市民生协、歧阜县生协、三重县生协、三重北生协、三河市民生协等五家组织〈下称五地生协〉自愿联合组成。 1 997年的资料表明 ,当时日本有 40 %的家庭参加了日本生活协同组合。会员参与的事业日本生协组织的消费口号是 :人人为我 ,我为人人。东海生协的事业主要包括生活消费品自选商场、共同购物〈配送中心把会员订购的物品送…     

An Interview with Ahlam Mosteghanemi

Ahlam Mosteghanemi was the first Algerian woman writer to publish a novel in the Arabic language. Her work is therefore very significant in the context of Arab women's writing and feminism. Her novels express a unique understanding of social and political events, and convey the impact of these events on individuals by combining love stories with political and social history, fused together in present time. The interview examines Ahlam Mosteghanemi's novels and the impact of colonization and post-colonization on Mosteghanemi, her writing, Algeria and the Algerian people. Mosteghanemi's decision to write in Arabic and the themes of her novels are directly informed by the Algerian war of independence and as such can be seen both as a statement of independence from the Eurocentric homogenization of language and discourse, and as a feminist political statement. The interview seeks to deconstruct the widespread image of feminist literature as a genre that attempts to explore the female experience through an unnuanced binary focus on the opposition between the male and female within a patriarchal society. The interview pays particular attention to the rich symbolism of Mosteghanemi's novels. Even in the English translation there is a strong sense of the historical and geographical reality of Algeria, an ancient country repeatedly invaded by colonizing forces, and struggling again in the modern world to establish an independent identity. The interview looks at some of the significant themes raised by Mosteghanemi in her novels. In addition to this, the interview pays particular attention to the issue of translation in Mosteghanemi's novels and to her attitudes towards her readership.     

愉快教育探微

怎样的教育才是成功的教育?这是广大教育工作者历久弥新的探讨课题。联合国教科文组织指出:“将来的文盲是没有学会学习的人!”教师应该更新教学观念,优化教学环境,实施愉快教学;激发学生学习兴趣,引导学生自主学习。“愉快教育”以教学观念的转变为先导,以激发培养学生学习的兴趣为核心,以使学生乐学会学为目的。     

有效市场与有为政府——兼论中国特色社会主义市场经济

政府与市场的关系一直是经济学讨论的经典命题.现代市场经济运行的现实是,世界上不可能存在完全有效的市场和能力无缺的政府,也不存在标准和完美的"政府与市场关系",每个国家都在寻求有效市场和有效调控的有机结合点.中国特色社会主义市场经济在充分发挥"有效市场"与"有为政府"的作用方面具有独特的制度优势.在我国全面建设社会主义现...