Peace negotiations in the political marketplace: the implications of women's exclusion in the Sudan-South Sudan peace process

This article investigates the implications of women’s exclusion for the nature and durability of peace processes, and whether factors that undermine peace consolidation post-settlement might be prevented through more inclusive peacemaking. It examines the Sudan-South Sudan peace process that produced the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, the roles women played in peacemaking and their exclusion from official negotiations, and the sources of insecurity post-CPA. South Sudan’s peace process shows that the exclusion of women can be understood as a canary in a coal mine: a highly visible marker of the broader exclusivity of such processes, and the complex dynamics of elite capture in war and peace processes. Women’s exclusion was the product of the region’s political marketplace, in which power and authority is secured by elites through violence and bargaining, to the exclusion of other groups. By understanding exclusion as a deliberate strategic tactic that extends from war into peacetime, I argue that the exclusion of women is not the reason why peace processes fail in and of itself, but rather the product of elite ownership of peace processes and the structure of many peace processes that facilitates and rewards such ownership, with serious consequences for the sustainability of peace post-settlement.     

Language and politics: Investigations of language and speech by social and cultural anthropologists

Anderson, Benedict R. O'G. Language and Power: Exploring Political Cultures in Indonesia. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1990. vii + 305 pp. including index. $44.95 cloth, $14.95 paper.

Merlan, Francesca and Alan Rumsey. Ku Waru: Language and Segmentary Politics in the Western Nebilyer Valley, Papua New Guinea. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991; xvii + 387 pp. including appendices, notes, references, and index. $59.50 cloth.     

An archaeological test of the “Exchange Expansion Model” of contact era change on the Northwest Coast

Recent anthropological studies show that traditional views of indigenous communities in the wake of European colonialism are constrained by Eurocentric biases. These biases can be overcome, in part, by greater reliance on archaeological data as an independent line of evidence and increased attention to indigenous internal sociocultural processes. This study uses these strategies to examine colonial era shifts in indigenous exchange systems on the Northwest Coast of North America. Obsidian artifact data from late precontact and early postcontact deposits are used to test what I call the “Exchange Expansion Model” (EEM) of colonial period shifts in Northwest Coast exchange systems. According to the EEM, both the volume and geographic scope of supralocal exchange among indigenous communities increased as a result of European influences. This study tests the model using obsidian artifact data from three Lower Columbia River sites – Cathlapotle (45CL1), Clahclellah (45SA11), and Meier (35C05). The results support the hypothesized increase in volume, but not the hypothesized increase in geographic scope, of indigenous supralocal exchange. To explain the departure from expectations, I propose a revised version of the EEM which considers more fully how Native demography and internal sociocultural dynamics developed in the context of introduced diseases, horses, and the fur trade. I suggest these variables facilitated increases in the flow of prestige goods, but declines in the flow of less valued goods such as obsidian, from interior sources to the Lower Columbia River. Exchange alliances between Lower Columbia Chinookans and nearby Willamette Valley inhabitants were more resistant to disruption, so obsidian importation from the Willamette Valley to the Lower Columbia stabilized, and perhaps intensified, during the postcontact era. These findings illustrate the power of archaeology for empirically testing ethnohistorical models of colonialism and for illuminating the significance of indigenous internal sociocultural processes in colonial entanglements.     

Palaeolithic engravings and sedimentary environments in the Côa River Valley (Portugal): implications for the detection,interpretation and dating of open-air rock art

The pre-Magdalenian phase of the Côa River Valley open-air rock art is mostly distributed at the boundary between the rocky valley slopes and the floodplain that correspond to the most favourable geomorphological setting for the preservation of pecked and deeply superposed engravings of the most famous artistic phase of the area. The natural vertical panels of the engraved art located at this geomorphological interface have suffered weathering during two cold events of the Lateglacial. They were buried by several colluvial and alluvial deposits. The reconstruction of the sedimentary and archaeological context of the CôaRiver Valley engraving permits a better assessment of the preservation processes and interpretation of Palaeolithic open-air rock art.     

Borders,planning and policy transfer: historical transformation of development discourses in the Finnish Torne Valley

European Union spatial policies have become a key institutional context in which to study policy transfer processes in European border areas. These policies are, however, only the most recent part of these transformation processes which raises a need for more historically sensitive approaches. An historical perspective is important, since border regions are historical processes with particular path-dependent development trajectories and power structures. This paper aims to contribute to the discussion concerning the transformation of European border regions by looking at the policy transfer of regional development discourses in the Finnish Torne Valley. The study material consists of strategic development documents produced by the Finnish border municipalities and the municipal-based co-operation organizations from the 1930s to 2013. The examination, based on critical discourse analysis, shows that the transformation process is driven by national trends and the dominant planning discourse. Nevertheless, the particular border setting and local discourse on ‘united Torne Valley’ have also intertwined with political and economic processes during different time periods.     

Fire Events,Violence and Abandonment Scenarios in the Ancient Andes: The Final Stage of the Aguada Culture in the Ambato Valley,Northwest Argentina

Understanding how archaeological sites are abandoned is a vital part of archaeology. This paper explores abandonment as a phenomenon in a worldwide context, particularly in relation to sites with evidence of fire, and with a special focus on the South-Central Andes. I evaluate the patterns from an area of the Argentinian Andes and discuss the disappearance of the Aguada Culture, one of the central cultures in Argentinian prehistory, using evidence from the core area the Ambato Valley. I conclude that environmental factors were not the sole or determining source of stress, but rather part of a social–environmental dimension in which several factors combined to push a society into a vulnerable situation. In terms of the abandonment of the Aguada settlements in the Ambato Valley, the study shows that frequent forest fires might have played a role, but based upon the regularity of such events as seen in the sediment history, it is unlikely that these were the only factor in the process of abandonment of the valley.     

Explanation of the Pattern of P49a,f <Emphasis Type="Italic">Taq</Emphasis>I RFLP Y-Chromosome Variation in Egypt

The possible factors involved in the generation of the p49a,f TaqI Y-chromosome spatial diversity in Egypt are explored. The object is to consider explanations beyond those that emphasize gene flow mediated via military campaigns within the Nile corridor during the dynastic period. Current patterns of the most common variants (V, XI, IV) have been suggested to relate to Middle Kingdom and New Kingdom political actions in Nubia, including sometimes settler colonization, and the conquest of Egypt by Napata (in upper Nubia, northern Sudan) that initiated Dynasty XXV. Other events or processes have not been presented. However, a synthesis of evidence from archaeology, historical linguistics, texts, the distribution of haplotypes outside of Egypt, and some demographic considerations, lends greater support to the establishment, before the Middle Kingdom, of the observed distributions of the most prevalent haplotypes: V, XI, and IV. It is suggested that the pattern of diversity for these variants in the Egyptian Nile Valley, was largely the product of population events that occurred in the late Pleistocene to mid-Holocene through Dynasty I, and was sustained by continuous smaller scale bi-directional migrations/interactions. The higher frequency of V in Ethiopia than in Nubia or upper (southern) Egypt, has to be taken into account in any discussion of variation in the Nile Valley, especially in the context of the findings of historical linguistics.Les facteurs possibles qui etaient parmi la generation de p49a,f TaqI Y-divers chromosome spatiale en Egypte, avaient ete explores. L’objectif etait de prendre en consideration les explications autour de celles qui mettaient l’accent sur le gene flow qui avait ete medie a partir des campagnes militaries dans le corridor du Nil, pendant la periode dynastique. Les modeles courants des varieties communes (V, XI, IV) avaient ete suggeres pour qu’ils soient en lien avec les actes politiques du Royaume Moyen et du Royaume Nouveau de Nubie, inclu quelques colonies, et la conquete de l’Egypte par Napta (en Haut Nubie, au Nord du Soudan), cela avait initie la 25eme dynastie. D’autres evenements ou procedures, n’avaient pas ete presentes. Ainsi, une synthese d’evidence de l’archeologie, de langues historiques, de textes, la distribution des haplotypes en dehors de l’Egypte, et quelques considerations demographiques avaient servi de grand support a l’etablissement, avant le Royaume Moyen, des distributions observees des varietes les plus prevalents: V, XI, and IV. Il est suggere que le modele de diversite pour ces varieties dans la Vallee du Nil Egyptien, etait largement le produit des evenements populaires qui s’etaient passes dans la derniere periode du Pleistocene au Moyen-Holocene jusqu’a la Premiere Dynastie, et etait soutenu par de petites echelles continue de demi-migrations/interactions directional. La plus grande frequence de V en Ethiopie qu’en Nubie ou plus haut, au Sud de l’Egypte, doit etre prise en considerartion dans n’importe quelle discussion de variation dans la Vallee du Nil, speciallement dans le contexte des decouvertes de langues historiques.     

Environmental Justice and American Indian Tribal Sovereignty: Case Study of a Land–Use Conflict in Skull Valley, Utah

This paper examines environmental justice in the context of questions of American–Indian tribal sovereignty through an analysis of a land–use dispute over the Skull Valley Band of Goshute Indians' decision to host a high–level radioactive waste facility on their reservation in Tooele County, Utah. The case study entails a far more intricate story than that presented in the majority of existing literature, which is dominated by analytical frameworks of environmental racism and distributive environmental justice. By elucidating the historical geography of Skull Valley and politics of tribal sovereignty, I argue that a prolonged process of historical colonialism has produced a landscape of injustice in which the tribe's choices have been structurally limited. The historical colonialism, intertwining with the capitalist political economy, has geopolitically isolated the tribe to suffer procedural environmental injustice. At the same time, the tribe has struggled to pursue self–determination through the retention of sovereignty and Goshute identity in the arenas of tribal environmental management and the environmental–justice movement. Conflict over the definition and practice of tribal sovereignty at different geographical scales reveals the social, historical, and political–economic complexity of environmental justice.     

Feeding the scavengers. Actualistic taphonomy in the Jordan Valley,Israel

This paper describes the results of a 3‐year project carried out in the Jordan Valley, Israel, in which the influence of specific local environmental conditions, such as scavenging, weathering and scattering of carcasses, were related to the rate of their bone survival. During the 3 year period, the taphonomy of 16 whole animal carcasses, deposited in a nature reserve and agricultural cultivated area were compared. The exact age, date of death and weight of all animals was known. Results of animal scavenging activities on the carcasses, such as disappearance of bones and damage, such as tooth marks, breakage, gnawing to the leftover bones, were recorded at the end of the initial, intensive scavenging period (Phase I), and at later dates. Bone scattering maps were drawn at the end of Phase I and 2.5 and 3 years later. Weathering of surviving bones at the sites is described. Results show that in the Jordan Valley Nature Reserve, scavenging is the most important taphonomic agent causing total disappearance of all bones of young dairy calves, and reducing amount of bones remaining of more mature animals to a minimum. These small number of leftover bones, after only 2–3 years are the only candidates for eventual burial and fossilization. The loss of most of the bones through scavenging in the nature reserve might cause serious bias to conclusions about subsistence behaviour of prehistoric man. This is a taphonomic actualistic analogue to eventual conditions in prehistoric times. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Responsible girls: the spatialized politics of feminine success and aspiration in a divided Silicon Valley,USA

This article offers a comparative ethnographic examination of working-class Latina and middle-class white girls' narratives of aspiration and expressions of self-cultivation in early twenty-first-century Silicon Valley, USA. I argue that such girls' subject-making statements of aspiration and gendered practices of self-cultivation reflect their emotively charged negotiations of race and class differentiated ideals of feminine success, their experience of school and community spaces inscribed by hierarchies of race, class, and gender, and shifting political-economic circumstances. Moreover, I maintain that such statements and practices reveal girls' engagements with an open-ended gendered dynamic of responsibilization.     

Paleoclimate,Geology, Geomorphology,and Middle Holocene Settlement Systems in the Delice Valley of North-Central Anatolia

The Delice Valley in north-central Anatolia is one of the regions where Hatti societies lived during the Early Bronze Age. This region has rarely been explored in terms of its geology, geomorphology, and human-environment interactions throughout the Bronze Age. The focus of the Delice Valley Survey is to build a holistic approach to assess complex socio-ecological dynamics in the region from the perspective of the longue durée. This paper examines the paleoclimatic conditions, the settlement systems, the production capacity of agropastoral systems, and the changes in the political economy in the Delice Valley during the Early Bronze Age and the Iron Age. The results of the first season of fieldwork suggest that the Delice Valley was settled intensively only during certain periods. Although paleoclimatically suitable for denser settlement, the area showed significantly lighter settlement patterns during the Middle and Late Bronze ages.     

Climate change,human security and violent conflict

Climate change is increasingly been called a ‘security’ problem, and there has been speculation that climate change may increase the risk of violent conflict. This paper integrates three disparate but well-founded bodies of research – on the vulnerability of local places and social groups to climate change, on livelihoods and violent conflict, and the role of the state in development and peacemaking, to offer new insights into the relationships between climate change, human security, and violent conflict. It explains that climate change increasingly undermines human security in the present day, and will increasingly do so in the future, by reducing access to, and the quality of, natural resources that are important to sustain livelihoods. Climate change is also likely to undermine the capacity of states to provide the opportunities and services that help people to sustain their livelihoods. We argue that in certain circumstances these direct and indirect impacts of climate change on human security may in turn increase the risk of violent conflict. The paper then outlines the broad contours of a research programme to guide empirical investigations into the risks climate change poses to human security and peace.     

Feasting landscapes and political economy at the Early Horizon center of Huambacho, Nepeña Valley, Peru

The present contribution examines feasting practices at Huambacho (800–200 cal. B.C.), an Early Horizon elite center of the Nepeña Valley, Department of Ancash, Peru. Feasts are approached as long-term strategies essential to the political economy of human societies. Drawing upon data from public architecture, material culture and food remains, the study closely considers feasts as political actions and investigates the organization and social meaning of these special events. At Huambacho, I contend that the diacritical aspects of feasting practices, such as the use of exclusive spaces and special paraphernalia, contributed to the dual celebration of communal identity and prosperity, and the creation and reproduction of social inequalities. The research highlights the dual centripetal and centrifugal dynamics of Early Horizon feasts and demonstrates the role of the Huambacho center in advertising the success of the local community based on new forms of production and innovative rules of commensal hospitality.     

Shell beads from Mississippian sites in the northern Yazoo Basin,Mississippi

ABSTRACT

In this paper, which focuses on the Mississippian period in the northern Yazoo Basin, Mississippi, I present some interesting findings from research done over the past century. In this area, most shell beads come from surface collections, or from excavated burials in cemeteries or ossuaries. Burial styles include extended, flexed, semi-flexed, and bundles, with very few cremations having been encountered. Bead burials also seem to reflect both common and elite people, and there are some interesting discoveries concerning association of shell beads. I will use 33 archaeologically investigated major sites as examples to illustrate an unexpected paucity of shell beads and other shell ornaments at some of the most heavily populated Mississippian sites in the Lower Mississippi Valley. Two other sites with shell beads in the uplands will be used for comparison.     

Distributional Survey of the Reinhardt Site (33PI880), Pickaway County,Ohio: A Strategy for Deciphering the Community Structure of a Fort Ancient Village

Abstract

There is currently a paucity of Fort Ancient sites with deciphered settlement structures. If settlement structure is reflective of social organization, then a larger sample of sites is needed to evaluate extant models of Fort Ancient social development. A distributional survey of the Reinhardt site, a Middle Fort Ancient habitation in the Middle Scioto Valley, Ohio is proposed as a model of efficient, multi-staged investigation that can aid in detection and interpretation of community structure. By combining an intensive surface collection and a 10 -×-20 -m grid of small volumetric shovel test units, I was able to discern a probable small plaza (circa 40 -m diameter) and a partial, relatively wide habitation ring (>30 m). I argue that this strategy can be usefully employed in a variety of situations to increase our understanding of variability in settlement organization in general, and specifically for the Late Prehistoric agricultural societies of the Middle Ohio Valley.     

Paleoenvironment and anthracology: determination of variations in humidity based on anatomical characters in archealogical plant charcoal (Ambato Valley,Catamarca, Argentina)

Anatomical features related to water deficiency were analyzed in archaeological plant charcoal as a paleoenvironmental indicator. The end of the Aguada settlements in the Valley of Ambato (Catamarca, Argentina), which took place towards the end of the first millennium of this era, was used as the case study. Tools from Ecological Anatomy were applied to recreate paleoenvironmental scenery for the studied processes. The results of the analyses showed that this area must have been undergoing a period of arid conditions during the studied period.     

Biostratigraphic Evidence Relating to the Age‐Old Question of Hannibal's Invasion of Italy,II: Chemical Biomarkers and Microbial Signatures

As discussed in Part I, a large accumulation of mammalian faeces at the mire site in the upper Guil Valley near Mt. Viso, dated to 2168 cal ¹⁴C yr., provides the first evidence of the passage of substantial but indeterminate numbers of mammals within the time frame of the Punic invasion of Italia. Specialized organic biomarkers bound up in a highly convoluted and bioturbated bed constitute an unusual anomaly in a histosol comprised of fibric and hemist horizons that are usually expected to display horizontal bedding. The presence of deoxycholic acid and ethylcoprostanol derived from faecal matter, coupled with high relative numbers of Clostridia 16S rRNA genes, suggests a substantial accumulation of mammalian faeces at the site over 2000 years ago. The results reported here constitute the first chemical and biological evidence of the passage of large numbers of mammals, possibly indicating the route of the Hannibalic army at this time. Combined with the geological analysis reported in Part I, these data provide a background supporting the need for further historical archaeological exploration in this area.     

Justice in River Management: Community Perceptions from the Hunter Valley,New South Wales,Australia

Dealing with differing and sometimes conflicting criteria for priority‐setting is an essential part of sustainable natural resource management. However, all too often, these ethical and political considerations are neglected within a planning regime based upon apparently ‘objective’ biophysical assessment techniques. Input into associated decision‐making processes is also frequently restricted to a narrow range of ‘stakes’ based upon historical and geographic circumstances. This paper reports on the findings of interviews and discussion groups in the Hunter Valley, New South Wales, which aimed to canvass the diversity of perceptions of distributive and procedural justice in river rehabilitation. A range of biophysical and social criteria for setting priorities in rehabilitation work was identified. Participants also had differing ideas on the composition of decision‐making bodies and on decision‐making processes. The key implications of these findings are that sustainable river management policy needs to openly address differing conceptions of justice and that rehabilitation practice should be holistic, transdisciplinary and concerned with both outcome and process.     

The use and abuse of hostages in later Anglo‐Saxon England

This paper explores the use of hostages in political relations in Anglo‐Saxon England, often between different ethnic groups. Although much of the evidence relates to the ninth century when hostages were used as a means of guaranteeing the peace agreements made between King Alfred and his Viking adversaries, consideration will be given here to the use of hostages in the broader context of the late Anglo‐Saxon period. The paper discusses whether the significance of these arrangements lay in their projection of imperial power or in their practicality as a crude political tool whose effectiveness in maintaining an agreement lay in a tangible threat. Both of these aspects of Anglo‐Saxon hostageship are examined, especially with regard to peacemaking, the extent to which it could be successful, and why.     

“Fixing” Climate Change by Mortgaging the Future: Negative Emissions,Spatiotemporal Fixes,and the Political Economy of Delay

Models suggest that climate change mitigation now depends on negative emissions, i.e. the large‐scale removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. This assumption has been criticised in the climate policy literature for being unfeasible and unjust. This article asks how critical scholars can make sense of, and contribute to these debates. It suggests that negative emissions can be conceived of as a spatiotemporal fix that promises to defer the devaluation of fixed capital. But the negative emissions example also challenges us to broaden our conception of how the socioecological contradictions of capitalism can be “fixed”. I outline three ways in which it does this by highlighting the significance of a predominantly temporal fix, the role of hegemonic, sociopolitical interventions involving multiple actors, and the possibility of safeguarding existing production processes. I conclude that spatiotemporal fixes to climate change should be seen as part of a wider political economy of delay in devaluing carbon‐intensive accumulation processes.