American Images of Canada: Canadian Muslims in US Newspapers, 1999–2014

How do American news media portray Canadian Muslims? Using a sample of 386 discrete newspaper articles published between January 1, 1999, and December 31, 2014, in The Buffalo News, Tampa Bay Times, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and USA Today, this article investigates the portrayal of Canadian Muslims in these publications through a combination of content and discourse analyses. Three findings stand out: first, the overall tone of the coverage was neutral or ambiguous rather than either systematically positive or systematically negative; second, a tendency to construct Muslims as social outsiders was common even in articles coded as positive; third, the Canadian Muslim experience was viewed through the prism of discourses on American exceptionalism, and above all the idea that assimilation always trumps multiculturalism.     

Reconstruction of regional and national population using intermittent census-type data: The case of Portugal, 1527–1864

Abstract

We offer a new methodology for the construction of annual population stocks over the very long run. Our method does not require the assumption of a closed economy, and can be used in situations in which local annual gross flows are obtainable. Combining gross flows with intermittent census-type data, it is possible to arrive at local, regional and national population stock estimates at annual frequencies. We provide an application to early modern and nineteenth century Portugal, using a large sample of parish-level statistics up to the first modern census of 1864. All six major regions of the country are considered.     

Colonial Virginia's paper money regime, 1755–74: A forensic accounting reconstruction of the data

In this article, the author reconstructs the data on Virginia's paper money regime using forensic accounting techniques. He corrects the existing data on the amounts authorized and outstanding, and reconstructs yearly data on previously unknown aspects of Virginia's paper money regime, including printings, net new emissions, redemptions and removals, denominational structures, expected redemption tax revenues, and specie accumulating in the treasury for paper money redemption. These new data form the foundation for narratives written on the social, economic, and political history of Virginia, as well as for testing models of colonial paper money performance.     

A technique for the analysis of two-dimensional data: application to OI 5577Å airglow

A method to determine whether a two-dimensional data set can be represented by two independent separable functions is demonstrated using both synthetic data and satellite observations of OI 5577Å airglow. For such cases when the functions are separable it is possible to identify the function in the presence of noise using an iterative procedure based on the properties of an equitable matrix. In the specific case of the airglow, the latitudinal and temporal variations are separable for the data set studied. The spatial structure shows a minimum near the equator, with maxima at 35° in the winter hemisphere and 25° in the summer hemisphere. The long-term temporal function shows maxima after the equinoxes, with minima near the solstice. A 12 month component has a maximum near day 300.     

Maps and the settlement of southern Palestine, 1799–1948: an historical/GIS analysis

Historical maps of the Negev Desert which comprises half of the total land area of Palestine can be viewed from several intersecting perspectives relating to aspects such as their contribution to tracing patterns of settlement and agricultural history, imperialism and mapping, and legal geography of land ownership and indigenous people. Here we focus mainly on the first theme, incorporate new methods and demonstrate their application to studies in historical geography.     

The critical geopolitics of the Uzbekistan–Kyrgyzstan Ferghana Valley boundary dispute, 1999–2000

In 1999 the Uzbekistan–Kyrgyzstan Ferghana Valley boundary became a brutal reality in the lives of borderland inhabitants, when it became the key issue in a crisis of inter-state relations. Mainstream explanations have suggested that the Soviet boundary legacy and convergent post-Soviet macro-economic policies made conflict inevitable. Drawing on critical geopolitics theory, this paper questions the implicit determinism in these accounts, and seeks to augment them by a political analysis. It suggests that ‘the border crisis’ was the product of the interaction of complex domestic power struggles in both countries, the boundary itself acting as a material and discursive site where elites struggled for the power to inscribe conflicting gendered, nationalistic visions of geopolitical identity. It concludes by insisting upon a moral imperative to expose and challenge the geographical underpinnings of state violence.     

The economic factor in the Sino-Vietnamese split, 1972–75: An analysis of Vietnamese archival sources

Relying on so far untapped Vietnamese archival sources, this article examines the impact of China's gradual curtailment of its economic assistance to the Democratic Republic of Vietnam's (DRV) war and economic recovery efforts and its implications for Sino-Vietnamese relations between 1972 and 1975. While Beijing's gradual reduction of aid to the DRV during this period was primarily motivated by the declining importance of North Vietnam to China's strategic security combined with the reality of China's domestic economic hardship which largely resulted from the disastrous Cultural Revolution of 1966–69, Hanoi's reactions and policy responses were driven by their deep-rooted perception of Beijing's insincerity and hidden intention to keep Vietnam weak. The Sino-Vietnamese conflict that ensued after 1975 was not inevitable; Hanoi's leaders launched concerted diplomatic efforts to improve economic relations with Beijing throughout 1975 because they clearly recognised the importance of China's continued economic assistance and preferential trade agreements to its first five year plan (1976–80). However, Beijing's unchanged position and hasty decision to totally cut off aid to Vietnam and additionally take punitive economic measures against Vietnam's first five-year plan in late 1975 while at the same time increasing economic and military aid to the Democratic Kampuchea compelled Hanoi to tilt closer towards Moscow.     

An architectural analysis of the Hot Bath and Cross Bath,Bath, 1997–2003

Abstract

These baths represent two very significant architectural pieces within a city famed for innovation in that field. The Hot Bath was designed by the internationally renowned John Wood the Younger, the Cross Bath by Thomas Baldwin, ‘principal creator of Bath’. As public buildings focused on bathing, their design needed to reflect changing social attitudes as well as the latest architectural fashion. An opportunity to study the buildings between 1997 and 2003 demonstrated how circulation and division within public buildings could be used to help manage ever-changing social demands, whilst maintaining at least some of the integrity of their historic, architectural vision.     

Scenarios of Poiesis: Italian New Media (1994–2004)

This essay attempts to read a number of interventions in Italian new media over the last decade as both a response to and an implicit critique of posthumanism. After a brief discussion of the principal terms in question—new media, interaction, and posthumanism—and a survey of the most important contributors to the discourse of posthumanism in Italy, the essay maps the principal features of Italian media as embodied by the works of three contemporary new media artists. These characteristics include the privileging of a prosthetic model for understanding interaction and more generally the staging of interaction as moments of poiesis. They also include more recently the cancellation of the boundaries between ‘scientific’ and cultural images. The essay insists that by foregrounding the primacy of Italian cultural patterns for determining how meaning is generated in new media, Italian new media artists implicitly critique a reifying tendency among posthuman observers in Italy. The essay concludes with a broad assessment of the importance of poiesis for an Italian technological imaginary.     

Cultural Heritage and Communities Coexisting: Public Archaeology in Cambodia, 1999–2009

Abstract

This paper outlines the background, planning and execution of a programme of public education around the archaeological site of Banteay Kdei in Cambodia. This was aimed at interesting and involving local communities in the research carried out at the site, and providing opportunities for further engagement. The programme was conducted within the established Japanese model of gensetsu, organized educational visits to working archaeological sites. The paper discusses the practicalities of establishing gensetsu at Banteay Kdei, including bureaucratic and practical obstacles, and the rewards of working with local schools.     

Diet in transitory society: isotopic analysis of medieval population of Central Europe (ninth–eleventh century AD,Czech Republic)

Dietary behavior in the context of the formation of state structure, Christianization, and significant urbanization was studied, using the Great Moravian Empire (ninth–tenth century AD, Czech Republic) as a representative example. We also analyzed the impact of the disruption of social structure at the beginning of the tenth century and subsequent recovery of society during the eleventh century. Carbon and nitrogen isotopic values were measured in 189 adults (both sexes) and 74 animals representing different socioeconomic contexts (power centers/hinterlands) and chronology (Great Moravian/Late Hillfort period). Statistically significant differences in animal protein consumption were observed between centers and hinterlands. For centers, significant relationship was found between nitrogen isotopic values and socioeconomic status in males but not for females. Diachronic diet changes were observed, with the eleventh century diet characterized by higher millet consumption in both sexes and lower consumption of animal protein in males. These results confirm that Great Moravia represented a highly stratified society socioeconomically. Social status appears to determine the consumption of animal protein much more in males than in females. The diet of females also proved to be more uniform in the diachronic frame. The diachronic change in dietary behavior suggests that through the apparent recovery in the eleventh century, Moravian society did not reach its original level of welfare at least in terms of the quality of diet.     

Blombos Cave,Southern Cape,South Africa: Preliminary Report on the 1992–1999 Excavations of the Middle Stone Age Levels

The Later- and Middle Stone Age levels at Blombos Cave (BBC) were excavated over four field seasons between 1992 and 1999. Here we report on the results from the Middle Stone Age (MSA) levels. The taphonomy and depositional history of the MSA levels is complex due to faulting, folding and spalling. Careful observations during excavation have assisted in understanding some of these taphonomic and site formation processes; microstratigraphic analysis, currently in progress, will add to this information. The uppermost MSA level, the Still Bay phase, contains high densities of bifacial points, the fossile directeur of the Still Bay Industry. Placing the Still Bay within the MSA culture sequence has been problematic in the past because Still Bay assemblages are rarely found in situ and previous excavations were inadequately recorded. However with the regional data discussed in the text, the Still Bay can be securely placed before the Howiesons Poort dated at 65–70 ka.Flaked stone makes up the greatest proportion of all artefacts with the highest incidence of retouch and use of fine grained, non-local materials found in the Still Bay levels. The ochre assemblage is remarkable for the mass of material compared to other MSA sites. Finds uncommon in an MSA context are two pieces of ochre from the Still Bay phase engraved with a geometric design; a fragment of deliberately engraved bone; also, 28 shaped and polished bone tools recovered mainly from a phase just below the Still Bay. Blombos Cave is the first site where well preserved faunal remains have been recovered in association with the Still Bay allowing for unique insights into human subsistence behaviour and palaeoenvironmental reconstruction. Large fish bones, marine shells, seals and dolphins attest to extensive exploitation of aquatic resources and a wide range of terrestrial animals were hunted and gathered. The few human teeth recovered are heavily worn and damaged thus the issue of morphological modernity cannot be addressed.The BBC findings are a useful adjunct to findings from other MSA coastal sites in the southern Cape, especially Klasies River (KR) and Die Kelders Cave 1 (DK1); uniquely, BBC provides insights into human behaviour during a phase of the MSA never before studied in detail.