Among the many things which distinguish man from the lower animals and perhaps in a more spectacular but less extensive way distinguish man at an advanced level of culture from primitive man is the capacity to use the recorded experience of the past. This can help determine his actions in the present and thus determine in part what kind of future the world will see. The codification of knowledge of the past and its interpretation constitute the material of history. Doctrines and beliefs, various schools, and ideological sets about history determine each period's interpretation of what has gone on in the past. For instance, how may one reconcile the doctrinal myth of progress with the fix that the world is in now? In the light of contemporary ideas about causation, determinism, accident, objectivity, and the function and role, if any, of the individual person in history, ideas thin out. Professor

What is History

When Black Culture and Black Consciousness first appeared thirty years ago, it marked a revolution in our understanding of African American history. Contrary to prevailing ideas at the time, which held that African culture disappeared quickly under slavery and that black Americans had little group pride, history, or cohesiveness, Levine uncovered a cultural treasure trove, illuminating a rich and complex African American oral tradition, including songs, proverbs, jokes, folktales, and long narrative poems called toasts--work that dated from before and after emancipation. The fact that these ideas and sources seem so commonplace now is in large part due this book and the scholarship that followed in its wake. A landmark work that was part of the \"cultural turn\" in American history, Black Culture and Black Consciousness profoundly influenced an entire generation of historians and continues to be read and taught. For this anniversary reissue, Levine wrote a new preface reflecting on the writing of the book and its place within intellectual trends in African American and American cultural history.

Black Culture and Black Consciousness: Afro-American Folk Thought from Slavery to Freedom

The importance of medicinal plants in traditional healthcare practices, providing clues to new areas of research and in biodiversity conservation is now well recognized. However, information on the uses for plants for medicine is lacking from many interior areas of Himalaya. Keeping this in view the present study was initiated in a tribal dominated hinterland of western Himalaya. The study aimed to look into the diversity of plant resources that are used by local people for curing various ailments. Questionnaire surveys, participatory observations and field visits were planned to illicit information on the uses of various plants. It was found that 35 plant species are commonly used by local people for curing various diseases. In most of the cases (45%) under ground part of the plant was used. New medicinal uses of Ranunculus hirtellus and Anemone rupicola are reported from this area. Similarly, preparation of "sik" a traditional recipe served as a nutritious diet to pregnant women is also not documented elsewhere. Implication of developmental activities and changing socio-economic conditions on the traditional knowledge are also discussed.

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Traditional use of medicinal plants among the tribal communities of Chhota Bhangal, Western Himalaya

That Noble Dream: The "Objectivity Question" and the American Historical Profession. Peter Novick

Ethnopharmacological field studies: a critical assessment of their conceptual basis and methods.

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Madness in May: George Speight and the unmaking of modern Fiji

On 17 September 2014, Fiji went to the polls for the eleventh time since independence in 1970 and eight years after its latest coup in 2006. Commodore Frank Bainimarama was the architect of that coup. Six years later, his newly formed party, FijiFirst, handily won the elections, capturing 32 of the 50 seats in the single chamber parliament. His nearest rival, the indigenous Fijian-based Social Democratic Liberal Party (SODELPA), won 15 seats and the National Federation Party, traditionally the party of the IndoFijians, the remaining three. Other parties, including the once dominant Fiji Labour Party led by Fiji’s one time (and so far the only Indo-Fijian) Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry, failed altogether. The elections were significant not just because they were held at all: Bainimarama had reneged on his promise to hold elections in 2009 and many doubted whether he would honour his commitment in 2014. They were significant because the results hold the potential finally to sever Fiji’s links to its failed, race-obsessed past and point the country in a new direction. That is the hope of all Fiji citizens. But just as one swallow does not a summer make, one election cannot tell us much about the future evolution of political culture in a country afflicted with a history of military coups. The path to true representative democracy of the Westminster type, a semblance of which Fiji had since independence in 1970, faces a stiff uphill battle. Nonetheless, most observers concur that the election results have created the possibility of change. Whether it is allowed to come to fruition, and what shape it will take, are matters that must remain open for the foreseeable future. Fiji is a bit like Churchill’s Russia, a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. This most developed and sophisticated of independent nations in the South Pacific, endowed with ample natural resources and a talented and educated population, has been prone to self-inflected wounds in the form of coups that have hobbled its prospects and dented its future. The economy has stumbled and its foundations are fragile. The best and the brightest have left for greener pastures elsewhere, principally Australia and New Zealand, and more would leave if they could; and the region in which Fiji was once the undisputed leader is fragmented and Fiji’s moral authority within it diminished. Pope John Paul II’s remarks during a fleeting visit to the country in 1985 that Fiji was a symbol of hope to the world now in the aftermath of coups and convulsions seem hauntingly surreal. That is why, when it comes to Fiji, optimism and caution have to go hand in hand. The latest elections provide a good vantage point from which to take stock of where Fiji is at present and what its prospects for the future look like. I say good vantage point because the elections were different in significant ways from all the previous ones, different in both content and style. They were held under a new constitution that abolished communal voting, lowered the voting age from 21 to 18, introduced open list

Editorial: Fiji: The Road to 2014 and Beyond

Swimming with Sharks: tales from the South Pacific frontline. By Michael Field. Auckland: Penguin Books, 2010. 256 pp., illus., map, index. ISBN 9780143203735. NZ$41.00. An irritating young Peace C...

Brij V. Lal

Papers

Madness in May: George Speight and the unmaking of modern Fiji

Editorial: Fiji: The Road to 2014 and Beyond

Swimming with Sharks: tales from the South Pacific frontline. By Michael Field

Resistance and Indian Indenture Experience: Comparative Perspectives

People In-Between: Reflections from the Indian Indentured Diaspora (2004)