Academic literature on the topic '950502 Understanding Asia's Past'

The prevailing view of the constitutional framework in South Asia is seen as secondary and subsidiary to developed constitutional systems worldwide. Meanwhile, South Asian countries have merely re-produced the constitutional framework of developed nations. The emergence and development of South Asian constitutionalism present a range of perspectives and methodological approaches that contribute to comparative constitutional law scholarship in South Asia. The overt attention toward the Western notion of liberalism has often led to an incomplete and unclear approach to South Asian constitutionalism. The paper aimed to explore the elements of South Asian constitutionalism alongside underlying socio-economic and political discourse surrounding its contemporary understanding. It also analyzed the role of courts in affirming and transforming South Asian constitutionalism. Instead of reviving interest in South Asia and Third World Approach to International Law, this paper showed that it is only practical and pragmatic to study constitutionalism with specific reference to the modern discourse of democracy, judicial review, separation of power, and human rights enshrined in their respective constitutions. In terms of its emergence from the colonial history and other prevalent forms of distinct cultural, social, and political practices, South Asia presented a heterogeneous experience in the light of recognition and enforcement of socio-economic rights and transformations and deviations from its past experiences. KEYWORDS: Comparative Constitutional Law, Constitutionalism, South Asia.

The study of ancient civilisations enables us to establish an understanding of how societies have changed over thousands of years and helps provide useful context for present-day civilisations, as well as highlighting similarities between past and present civilisations. The large-scale study of proteins – proteomics – is one way that scientists can discover the foodstuffs that ancient civilisations grew and ate and gain interesting insights into what life was like back then. This is done through the identification of proteins in materials found during excavations and is at the heart of the work of Associate Professor Takumi Nishiuchi, Advanced Science Research Center, Kanazawa University, Japan. Through the analysis of ancient proteins, Nishiuchi and his team are stimulating ancient food and using archeological data to envisage the lifestyles of ancient civilisations. The researchers are working at ruins in China and South Korea, as well as at two Japanese ruins in Fukuoka prefecture, with a view to better understanding the propagation of rice food culture and, in the process, providing context to Asia's ongoing food culture. In innovative work involving Orbitrap mass spectrometry, the team has performed protein analysis in plant remains and food crusts found at various sites, which is something that has not been done many times before. The researchers hope their work will lay the foundations for similar studies at sites across the globe, providing insights into other civilisations.

Part II of this special edition contains the remaining 11 papers arising from a Hooke discussion meeting held in March 2020 devoted to exploring the current status of inertial confinement fusion research worldwide and its application to electrical power generation in the future, via the development of an international inertial fusion energy programme. It builds upon increased coordination within Europe over the past decade by researchers supported by the EUROFusion Enabling Research grants, as well as collaborations that have arisen naturally with some of America's and Asia's leading researchers, both in the universities and national laboratories. The articles are devoted to informing an update to the European roadmap for an inertial fusion energy demonstration reactor, building upon the commonalities between the magnetic and inertial fusion communities’ approaches to fusion energy. A number of studies devoted to understanding the physics barriers to ignition on current facilities are then presented. The special issue concludes with four state-of-the-art articles describing recent significant advances in fast ignition inertial fusion research. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘Prospects for high gain inertial fusion energy (part 2)’.

AbstractThis paper reviews the use of archaeological and documentary sources in the understanding of the past in Island Southeast Asia. The relationship between these two sources of data (and data sources that cross the boundaries of these categories) has varied over time, depending on the availability of data, changing interpretive strategies and scholarly trends and influences. The wealth of documentary sources relevant to Island Southeast Asia's past, and the increasing availability of detailed archaeological data have increased the potential to understand the past in this region from a variety of points of view. While this potential has not yet been fully realized, in part due to an unsophisticated use of these separate lines of evidence, recent scholarship has pushed the boundaries and revealed new information and insights into this history. Cet article passe en revue l'utilisation de sources documentaires et archéologiques dans la connaissance du passé des îles du Sud-Est asiatique. La relation entre ces deux sources d'information (et les sources qui dépassent les limites de ces deux catégories) a évolué au fil du temps en fonction de la disponibilité des données, des changements dans les stratégies d'interprétation et des tendances et influences académiques. La richesse des sources documentaires utiles dans l'étude du passé des îles du Sud-Est asiatique, et la disponibilité croissante de données archéologiques détaillées ont permis, à plusieurs niveaux, de faciliter la compréhension du passé de cette région. Bien que ce potentiel n'ait pas encore été complètement exploité, en partie à cause d'une utilisation peu raffinée de ces distinctes catégories de preuves, des études universitaires récentes ont repoussé ces limites et ont dévoilé de nouveaux indices, permettant ainsi de mieux pénétrer l'histoire des îles du Sud-Est asiatique.

Indigenous people have widely been blamed for degrading South Asia's montane forest resources through the practice of shifting cultivation, yet some studies have revealed that indigenous people used forests in a sustainable way for centuries until external intervention. The history of external intervention in the forests of South Asia is more than two centuries old. The process of degradation of forest resources requires understanding of the political and social processes that condition access, control and management of the land and resources involved. The Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) of Bangladesh, a part of the Himalayan region, underwent essentially the same socio-political and historical processes as many other countries in the region and had very similar experiences in forest management. By examination of policies and associated effects on CHT forest over the past two centuries, this paper reveals that the process of forest degradation in the CHT started during the British colonial period with the nationalization of forests, establishment of reserve forests (RFs), management of forests by government agencies and weakening of traditional institutions. The process of degradation was accelerated by: privatization of forest land for the promotion of sedentary agriculture, horticulture and rubber plantation; the construction of a hydraulic dam on the Karnafuli River; the settlement of lowland people; and the constant conflict between indigenous people and the Forest Department. The degradation of CHT forests is not only the result of traditional agricultural practices, but also of many other factors including inappropriate policies and programmes.

The strong continuities between colonial eugenics agendas and postcolonial population control efforts are striking elements in the history of eugenics in South Asia. This article discusses the role of different strands within colonial eugenics—particularly neo-Malthusianism—at different points in time and in the region's different postcolonial nations. It mentions that eugenics in a poverty-stricken colonial context provides a powerful and enduring template for connecting reproductive behavior to the task of revitalizing the nation as a whole. This article relates the history of eugenics in colonial India with the history of birth control advocacy. It discusses in detail the eugenics associations that held public meetings and advocated contraceptive use. It provides an understanding of the relative insignificance of heredity to Indian eugenics in light of the conditions for the development of eugenic science in India.