INTRODUCTION T is limited information on the ivory trade in Lao PDR but the presence of Asian Elephant Elephas maximus populations and a geographic position—situated between the world’s largest ivory traders Thailand and China—as well as the presence of ivory for sale in the country, may suggest an emerging role for the country in the international ivory trade. Six towns known for their involve...

Sacred values are different from secular values in that they are often associated with violations of the cost-benefit logic of rational choice models. Previous work on sacred values has been largely limited to religious or territorial conflicts deeply embedded in historical contexts. In this work we find that the Iranian nuclear program, a relatively recent development, is treated as sacred by ...

To utilize the notion of a sacred and a profane is to suggest an explanation and ordering of the world encountered that looks back to the Judeo-Christian traditions often claimed as the foundations of Western society. The term " sacred and profane " , bound together often as a figure of speech, suggests the defining differences between a number of oppositions: good and evil, Godly and Godless o...

This article discusses the Finnish hiisi sites which were listed in the 1967 doctoral thesis of the linguist Mauno Koski. Based on place names, Koski associated 14 Iron Age cemeteries with hiisi sites. Cup-marked stones, sacred trees and springs which have been found in the vicinity of these hiisi sites also seem to imply a connection between cemeteries and cult locations or sacred places. This...

There is a need to characterize Asian elephant ivory and compare with African ivory for controlling illegal trade and implementation of national and international laws. In this paper, we characterize ivory of Asian and African elephants using Schreger angle measurements, elemental analysis {X-ray fluorescence (XRF), inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES), and inductiv...