NEWSLETTER

OF THE

AMERICAN ORIENTAL SOCIETY

NUMBER 19______________________MAY 1995

CONTENTS

• I. CONFERENCES & SEMINARS

• II. GRANTS, FELLOWSHIPS, ETC.

• III. JOURNALS, NEWSLETTERS, SERIES

• IV. RECENT BOOKS PUBLISHED BY AOS MEMBERS

• V. POSITIONS AVAILABLE

• VI. MISCELLANEOUS

• VII. AOS ETHICS GUIDELINES

• VIII. NEWSLETTER ADDRESS

• IX. FINANCIAL REPORT (Note: The appearance of the column alignment will vary according to your web-browser. This document was prepared to display more or less correctly in Netscape.)

• X. PROCEEDINGS OF THE 205TH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE AMERICAN ORIENTAL SOCIETY, MARCH 26TH-29TH, 1995, SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH

AOS Middle West Meeting

American Numismatic Society

The American Numismatic Society also announces a second year of Saturday Afternoon Seminars, which in 1995 will include two sessions on Islamic coinage led by Michael L. Bates, Curator of Islamic Coins. The March 25, 1995 session was on "Collecting Islamic Coins". The October 21, 1995 session will be on "The Arab-Sasanian Coinage of Iran in the Seventh Century". Participation is limited to fifteen members in order to permit the examination of coins and to allow free discussion; there is a fee of $15.00 for each session. For further information call the Society at 212 234-3130.

NEH Summer Seminars for College Teachers of Interest to AOS Members

Inscription as Art in the World of Islam

• 1. The usage of the Arabic script as sacred inscription in different parts of the world.

• 2. Formulation and usage of Arabic based regional scripts where Islam was accepted as a faith, such as Persian, Urdu, Sindhi.

• 3. Inscription as icon: expression of devotion/faith via sacred writing (cross-comparative).

• 4. Legacy of the decorative and functional aspects of inscriptions within the context of the traditional learning and scholarship in Muslim societies over centuries.

• 5. Historical perspective on the evolution of the Arabic script as a feature of decorative art and/or the development of various calligraphic styles.

• 6. Context, function and comparative features of inscriptions on portable objects and architectural edifices.

• 7. Differences of texts and varieties of interpretative contexts of inscriptions in zahir (exoteric) versus batin (esoteric) formulations of Islamic ideology.

• 8. Impact of inscriptions on objects in the Muslim milieu. Were objects with inscriptions considered more meritorious or distinguished than other comparable ones? What moral or didactic or ethical purpose was served as a result of the inscriptions on various objects? Were inscriptions extravagant and purely ornamental or did they serve to define and hence limit the usage of the object?

• 9. The future of Arabic scripts both as functional and decorative elements in an era of super computers and other communication innovations.

Central and Inner Asian Seminar (CIAS), University of Toronto

The activities of the CIAS are supported largely by the Joint Centre for Asia Pacific Studies (University of Toronto and York University). Further sponsorship is provided within the University of Toronto by the Departments of East Asian Studies, History, Middle East and Islamic Studies, Slavic Studies, by the Centre for Russian and East European Studies, the Centre for Medieval Studies, and by the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies. The CIAS annually holds a one-day conference or a series of seminars on the campus of the University of Toronto. Presentations are by invitation only, but interested parties are encouraged to notify the organizers of the subject and stage of their current work. The CIAS was founded at the University of Toronto in 1990 by Professors Wayne Schlepp and Michael Gervers. In 1995-1996, it will be organized by Professor Maria Subtelny, Chair, Department of Middle East and Islamic Studies, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario Canada M5S 1A5. [tel.: 416-978-5672; fax: 416-978-3305].

Warring States Project

Mid-Atlantic Region/Association for Asian Studies

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II. GRANTS, FELLOWSHIPS, ETC.

Fulbright Scholar Award for Faculty and Professionals

National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH)

Woodrow Wilson Fellowships

The Woodrow Wilson Center has also announced the 1995-96 Fellows. Of the 31 Fellows appointed for the 1995-96 year, the Fellows listed below with the projects they will pursue at the Center may be of interest to AOS members: Richard M. Eaton: "Social history of the Deccan, 1300-1700"; Haleh Esfandiari: "Reconstructed lives: Women and the Islamic revolution"; Kiichi Fujiwara: "Authoritarian democracies: Political parties and the state in five Asian nations"; Patrick Eric Weil: "Immigration policies and national identities: The United States, Europe, and Japan"; Allen S. Whiting: "Security perspectives in East Asia"; André Wink: "Al-Hind: The making of the Indo-Islamic world".

Villa I Tatti

American Institute of Iranian Studies (AIIS) Dissertation Fellowships

• The Secretary, American Institute of Iranian Studies, University of Pennsylvania Museum, 3260 South Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6398.

Completed application forms for the current cycle should be submitted to the Secretary by September 30, 1995. In addition to the application form, applicants should submit a copy of their

dissertation proposal, a timetable for completion of the research including an explanation of how the money would be used, a curriculum vitae and transcript, and names and addresses of two referees (one of whom should be the dissertation advisor).

Founded in 1967, the American Institute of Iranian Studies AIIS) is a consortium of educational and cultural institutions. It represents institutional interests in the field of Iranian Studies, promotes the field in North America and facilitates research abroad. The Institute is a member of the Council of American Overseas Research Centers. From the fall of 1969 to the fall of 1979, the AIIS maintained an overseas research center in Tehran. It remains committed to reopening that center and/or other centers elsewhere in Persian-speaking areas of West-Central Asia at the earliest possible time. AIIS members currently include the Universities of Arizona, California (at Berkeley and Los Angeles), Chicago, Illinois, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Texas (at Austin), Utah, and Washington, and Columbia, Harvard, New York, Ohio State, Princeton and Washington Universities, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Royal Ontario Museum and the Smithsonian Institution.

University of Pennsylvania, Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowships in the Humanities 1996-97

Chair, Humanities Coordinating Committee,

c/o Margaret A. Viggiano, Program Coordinator,

16 College Hall,

University of Pennsylvania,

Philadelphia, PA 19104-6378

An Equal Opportunity, Affirmative Action Employer

American Philosophical Society Grants

appropriate. Projects likely to culminate in publications are preferred; projects in the creative or performing arts, and educational materials for classroom use are not included. Grants cover travel to the objects of research, purchase of photoreproductions of documents, and consumable supplies not available at the applicant's institution. The Society makes no grants for study, salary replacement, travel to conferences, or the purchase of permanent equipment, telephone calls or stationery.

Eligibility: applicants are expected to have held the doctorate for at least one year. Foreign nationals applying from abroad must state precisely what objects of research, ONLY available in the United States, need to be consulted.

Deadlines:

• January 1: for decision by mid-April

• March 1: for decision by mid-June

• July 1: for decision by mid-October

• November 1: for decision by mid-February

Obtaining forms: Written requests for forms must indicate eligibility, specify the area of research, and state the proposed use of grant funds. Telephone requests for forms cannot be honored. Our premises have not changed, but either of two addresses is valid:

Committee on Research,

American Philosophical Society,

104 S. 5th Street OR 150 S. Independence Mall East,

Philadelphia, PA 19106--3387

Scholarly Exchange With China 1996-97

Committee on Scholarly Communication with China announces grants for social scientists and humanists:

• Graduate Study/Dissertation Research

• Post-Doctoral Research

• Fellowships For Chinese Scholars

Chinese Fellowships for Scholarly Development support Chinese scholars for post-graduate research in the US in the social sciences and humanities. Funding is provided by the US information Agency, National endowment for the Humanities, and the Li, Luce, and Starr Foundations.

Graduate Program:

supports individuals with the MA to do advanced study and/or dissertation research in social sciences and humanities at a Chinese university or research institute; requires Chinese language proficiency acquired through at least three years of college-level study or its equivalent, preferably including time in a Chinese language environment; and requires a minimum tenure in China of one academic year, beginning September 1996.

Research Program:

supports individuals in social sciences and humanities with the Ph.D. or equivalent at the time of application; primarily supports individual research; those interested in joint research must submit separate applications; supports in-depth research on China, the Chinese portion of a comparative study, or exploratory research on an aspect of contemporary China; supports limited research in Hong Kong or elsewhere in East Asia to supplement research within the PRC; requires tenure of two months to one year in China, between July 1, 1996 and December 31, 1997; and gives preference to those who have not previously participated in the program, but encourages former participants to apply on the basis of published research done during an earlier visit.

Postmark deadline for application to the Graduate and Research Programs is October 13, 1995.

Chinese Fellowships for Scholarly Development:

support Chinese scholars in social sciences and humanities with the MA, Ph.D., or equivalent, from a Chinese institution; require nomination by American host and residence at host's institution for research and collaborative academic programs; do not support scholars enrolled in degree programs; offer living and modest travel expenses for one semester (five months) between August 1996 and December 1997 give preference to nominees whose host will secure support for a second semester.

Postmark deadline for nomination for Chinese Fellowships is November 3, 1995.

Address inquiries to: CSCC, 1055 Thomas Jefferson Street, NW, Suite 2013, Washington, D.C. 20007.

The 1995 Ibn Khaldun Prize

An International Graduate Student Writing Competition

The competition is open to all graduate students working on topics relating to the contemporary Middle East and North Africa or on historical topics in that region since the beginning of Islam. Theoretically informed and/or comparative studies incorporating the Middle East and other regions of the world are encouraged. There are no citizenship requirements and submissions will be accepted in either English or French.

This competition is part of the Joint Committee's continuing interest in encouraging younger scholars and in developing new and critical lines of scholarly inquiry in Middle East studies. The Joint Committee will be responsible for review and will award a prize or prizes totaling $1,000 for the best paper(s) received. Papers must not exceed 35 double-spaced, typewritten pages, including footnotes and bibliography. Papers should not present "state-of-the-art" surveys, descriptive reviews, or non theoretical surveys of recent literature. Unrevised dissertation proposals should not be submitted. Writers must clearly establish the contribution of their topics to their own fields and to Middle East studies in general.

The deadline for receipt of papers is July 15, 1995. Students should have completed at least one year of graduate school and, along with their papers, should submit evidence of current full-time enrollment or advancement to candidacy in a university doctoral program. Applicants should also include a cover letter noting the number of years they have been enrolled at the graduate level. The winner(s) will be announced by November 1995. Entries should be mailed to:

Joint Committee on the Near and Middle East,

Graduate Student Paper Competition,

Social Science Research Council,

605 Third Avenue,

New York, NY 10158

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III. JOURNALS, NEWSLETTERS, SERIES

New Series and Newsletter on Central and Inner Asia from the University of Toronto

The CIAS also prepares and distributes an annual newsletter which can be obtained from the organizers c/o the Department of East Asian Studies, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 1A5. Names and addresses of those interested in the activities of the Seminar will be placed on the mailing list of the CIAS.

Mongolia Survey

Problems of Post-Communism

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IV. RECENT BOOKS PUBLISHED BY AOS MEMBERS

Lecker, Michael: Muslims, Jews and Pagans: Studies on Early Islamic Medina, (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1995).

Wallenfels, Ronald: Hellenistic Seal Impressions in the Yale Babylonian Collection. I. Cuneiform Tablets, Ausgrabungen in Uruk-Warka Endberichte 19, (Mainz am Rhein: Verlag Philipp von Zabern, 1994).

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University of Chicago

Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations

Turkish History and Culture

Cornell H. Fleischer, Chair,
Turkish History and Culture Search Committee,
Center for Middle Eastern Studies,
The University of Chicago,
5828 S. University Ave.,
Chicago, IL 60637,
FAX (312) 702--2587 E-mail: c-fleischer@uchicago.edu.
Application deadline: October 16, 1995. The University of Chicago is an AA/EOE.

Assyriology Search -- UCLA

Participation in a wide variety of interdisciplinary courses in ancient near eastern civilizations including ancient Israel and Egypt is expected.

Applications containing a curriculum vitae, a list of publications, and the names of three referees should be directed to the Chair of the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1511. Deadline for applications is November 15, 1995. The University of California is an equal opportunity, affirmative action employer.

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The J. Paul Getty Trust

• 1. The Trust has launched a pilot project to explore intellectual property rights and other issues related to digital images and information.

• 2. Users of the Internet can now access art-historical information from bibliographic and research databases of The Getty Art History Information Program (AHIP) on World Wide Web (address http://www.ahip.getty.edu/ahip/home.html).

• 3. A multimedia database of folk art will test new standards developed by the Getty Art History Information Program (AHIP) for accessing images and text on computer networks. For further information contact The J. Paul Getty Trust. 401 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 900, Santa Monica, CA 90401-1455 [tel.: 310 395-0388; telefax: 310 451-8750].

VII. AOS ETHICS GUIDELINES

Panel Discussion on a Proposed Code of Professional Behavior for the AOS: Summary Statement

The Discussion centered on the following draft document which was circulated at the meeting:

• 1. No member of the American Oriental Society should acquire any object, tablet, manuscript or architectural fragment that there is reason to believe has been illegally excavated and/or exported since 1970.

• 2. No member of the American Oriental Society should identify, authenticate or evaluate material that there is reason to believe has been illegally excavated and/or exported since 1970.

• 3. Since no materials should be published or exhibited without permission from the legal owner, no member of the American Oriental Society should report, publish or exhibit material that there is reason to believe has been illegally exported and/or excavated, whether or not the medium is a publication or professional meeting of the American Oriental Society since 1970.

The discussion was initiated with a brief introduction presented on behalf of the panel as a whole by Elizabeth Stone. This introduction began by noting that a large number of other academic societies were either in the process of developing a similar code, or had already done so. Many of those societies had developed proposals which cover all aspects of behavior, from excavations, to publication, to the treatment of illegally excavated and/or exported antiquities. Since the AOS is not primarily made up of archaeologists, our discussion focussed only on the last point

We began by noting that the illegal antiquities trade not only divorces texts and objects from their original contexts, but also leads to widespread destruction of objects, since only the best objects, the complete tablets and, often, only illustrated manuscripts survive the process of illegal export. The panel did, however, acknowledge that manuscripts, while they may be illegally exported, are not usually the result of clandestine excavations and might merit some different consideration.

The issue of publication and exhibition of illegally obtained antiquities is the most difficult of the three issues (acquisition, authentication and publication). However, since publication or exhibition has the effect of authenticating the object in question and thus increasing its market value, while also sanctioning the behavior of the people or institutions involved in its acquisition, such actions are as damaging to the cultural heritage of the countries of origin as active buying and authentication.

This introduction ended by arguing that if professionals do not take the issue of the illegal antiquities trade seriously, we cannot expect the wider public to do so. Our aim is to follow in the path of those advocating the protection of endangered species, who have not only managed to persuade the government to raid pet stores that specialize in exotic fauna, but have also made it a matter of censure to own such animals. Indeed many of those who once collected endangered species are now working to protect their native habitats. We hope that the illegal trade of antiquities will become as socially sanctioned as the collection of endangered species.

The issue was then opened for discussion. Although all who responded expressed basic support for the measure, some issues were raised, most of which related to the research interests of particular individuals. The issues of authentication and acquisition were less troublesome than that of publication. This was especially true for some whose field consists largely of materials which have been illegally exported.

Most of the issues which were raised concerning either publication or purchase were, we felt, covered by the suggested phraseology "there is reason to believe" used in the proposed code.

It was understood that it can be difficult to determine whether a particular text or artifact had been exported before or after the 1970 UNESCO convention, which is generally taken as the point after which the illegal antiquities trade is no longer tolerated. It was also understood that for those working with materials which are quite recent, different countries define antiquities differently, such that an object some 50 years old might be prohibited from being exported from one country, but not from another.

It was also noted that no sanctions were attached to this code. It is merely intended to serve as a statement of principles for the AOS, to guide the members of the organization and the editorial decisions of the JAOS.

Some suggestions offered by the floor were gladly accepted by the panel. These included the replacement of "No member of the American Oriental Society should" with "The American Oriental Society does not condone." We also accepted the suggestion that instead of separating acquisition, authentication and publication into three paragraphs, that a single paragraph would suffice.

As a result of these deliberations, we forwarded the following revised guidelines to the Executive Committee for consideration: In order to discourage the illegal trade in antiquities which leads to the destruction of archaeological sites and their associated artifacts the American Oriental Society has adopted the following guidelines for professional ethics:

1. The American Oriental Society does not condone the acquisition, evaluation, publication or exhibition of artifacts including tablets, manuscripts and architectural fragments -- that there is reason to believe have been illegally excavated and/or exported from their country of origin since 1970.

2. The policies of the editorial and program committees of the American Oriental Society will reflect these guidelines.

First Revised Draft of the AOS Ethics Guidelines

15 May 1995

I. A panel session at the 205th American Oriental Society meetings was convened on 20 March 1995 in Salt Lake City to discuss the "Proposed Code of Ethics for the AOS" drafted by Elizabeth C. Stone and published in the Newsletter of the American Oriental Society 18 (November 1994) 23-24.

The Board of the Society decided to appoint a committee to further the work begun by the panel. That committee was made up of the elected Program Section chairs (William G. Boltz [East Asia], Michael R. Drompp [Inner Asia], Stephanie W. Jamison [South and Southeast Asia], Martha T. Roth [Ancient Near East], and Everett K. Rowson [Islamic Near East]), and the editor-in-chief of the Journal [South and Southeast Asia]), and one Journal section editor (Maynard P. Maidman [Ancient Near East]). The Guidelines Committee was asked to:

(1) draft a revised set of guidelines, based on the discussion and comments raised at the panel session;

(2) publish this "first revised guidelines" in the Spring 1995 Newsletter, accompanied by a summary statement by the panel members (Jerrold R. Cooper, Elizabeth C. Stone, Karen L. Wilson), and request comments from the membership;

(3) prepare a "second revised guidelines" which will be included with the autumn mailings for the 1996 meeting;

(4) present the "second revised guidelines" in a panel session at the 1996 meetings in Philadelphia;

(5) prepare a "third revised guidelines" for circulation and vote by mail ballot;

(6) announce the results of the mail vote at the 1997 meetings.

II. The published mission statement of the American Oriental Society reads as follows:

The American Oriental Society is the oldest learned society in the United States devoted to a particular field of scholarship. The Society was founded in 1842, preceded only by such distinguished organizations of general scope as the American Philosophical Society (1743), the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1780), and the American Antiquarian Society (1812). From the beginning its aims have been humanistic. The encouragement of basic research in the languages and literatures of Asia has always been central in its tradition. This tradition has come to include such subjects as philology, literary criticism, textual criticism, paleography, epigraphy, linguistics, biography, archaeology, and the history of the intellectual and imaginative aspects of Oriental civilizations, especially of philosophy, religion, folklore and art. The scope of the Society's purpose is not limited by temporal boundaries: All sincere students of man and his works in Asia, at whatever period of history, are welcomed to membership.

The 1970 Convention rose from a growing international concern that the high demand for cultural objects in the art market had generated rampant pillaging, particularly in countries with few resources to protect their cultural heritage. Pillaging has robbed these objects of their provenance, often resulting in mutilation and often destroying forever vital traces of their place in the history of mankind.

The 1970 Convention seeks to protect "cultural property," including archaeological and ethnological materials, defined as:

Archaeological material must be: (1) of cultural significance; and (2) at least 250 years old; and (3) normally discovered as a result of scientific excavation, clandestine or accidental digging, or exploration on land or under water.

Ethnological material is: (1) the product of a tribal or nonindustrial society and (2) important to the cultural heritage of a people because of its distinctive characteristics, comparative rarity, or its contribution to the knowledge of the origins, development, or history of that people.

The US law accomplishes two provisions of the UNESCO Convention. It prohibits importation of "any article of cultural property documented as belonging to the inventory of a museum or religious or secular public monument or similar institution that has been stolen from such an institution, "and recommends action on a case-by-case basis to "protect through the imposition of U.S. import restrictions, archaeological or ethnological materials that are part of a country's cultural patrimony and in danger from pillage."

IV. The AOS, through its members' presentations at the Annual Meetings and publications in the Journal, is in a position to support the 1970 UNESCO Convention and the 1983 US Implementation Act. To that end, the American Oriental Society Guidelines for Professional Ethics declares that:

THE AMERICAN ORIENTAL SOCIETY DOES NOT CONDONE THE ACQUISITION, AUTHENTICATION, EVALUATION, PUBLICATION, OR EXHIBITION OF ARTIFACTS ILLEGALLY EXCAVATED OR ILLICITLY EXPORTED.

The above statement, when/if ratified, will be included in the Annual Meeting Call for Papers and in the Journal's Guidelines for Submission of Manuscripts.

Professor Martha T. Roth, AOS Guidelines, Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, 1155 E. 58th Street, Chicago, IL 60637.

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