Stylistic developments of ship figureheads of the United States East Coast

L'évolution du style des figures de proue sur la côte est des Etats—Unis CAROL OLSEN Le développement des figures de proue, de bateaux construits au 18e et 19e siècle en Amérique du Nord, est comparé avec d'autres formes de l'art populaire comme les décorations de certains meubles, les enseignes de magasins de tabac, etc.     

The New Anthropology of Children,Play, and Games

Ray C. Rist. The Invisible Children: School Integration in American Society. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1978. 278 pp.     

日本在“东亚共同体”建设中面临的困境

“东亚共同体”构想是一度作为东亚经济牵引车的日本酝酿已久的重大经济外交方针,但这一构想却因在现实中面临着诸多困境而在实践中举步维艰。日本亚洲认同意识的摇摆不定、东亚地区政治安全机制的匮乏、对美优先的经济政策方针和东亚区域经济结构性障等都成为束缚日本推动“东亚共同体”构想的重要羁绊,束缚着日本“东亚共同体”建设的实践。     

Books about the Middle East for Young Children

Book reviewed in this article: Golden Windows and Other Stories of Jerusalem Adèle Geras The Hundredth Name Shulamith Levey Oppenheim, Illustrated byMichael Hays When Solomon Was King, Sheila McGill-Callahan Illustrated by Stephen T. Johnson Lebanon: New Light in an Ancient Lan, Elsa Marston Lebanon, Leila Merrell Foster Iran in Pictures     

发挥宗教界人士和信教群众在促进经济社会发展中的积极作用

党的十七大报告明确指出：要全面贯彻党的宗教工作基本方针,发挥宗教界人士和信教群众在促进经济社会发展中的积极作用。这是积极引导宗教与社会主义社会相适应的新体现,不仅表明了党的宗教政策的连续性、稳定性,还赋予了宗教工作新的内涵,为我们全面客观地认识宗教、准确而科学地判定我国宗教发展的历史方位开辟了新的视域,其深刻的现实意义和深远的历史意义将会在实践中不断得以显现。     

Neolithic Pottery Traditions from the Islands, the Coast and the Interior of East Africa

Scholars have attributed the spread of agriculture and pottery technology to the larger part of eastern and southern Africa to Bantu speakers. However, the spread of similar aspects to the Kenya and Tanzania Rift Valley as far south as Eyasi Basin and as far east as Mount Kilimanjaro has been attributed to Cushitic speakers. Whereas the spread of these innovations to the Rift Valley region can be dated back to 3000 BC, the remaining part of eastern and southern Africa is alleged to have received similar innovations only after the BC/AD changeover, when iron technology was introduced. These theories can no longer be sustained. The coast of Tanzania, its immediate hinterland, and the deep sea islands of Zanzibar and Mafia were settled by people who had knowledge of agriculture and pottery making probably from 3000 BC. These innovations are also found to have spread to southern Africa in the last millennium BC. The introduction of iron technology and beveled/fluted pottery, associated with Bantu speakers, was just another stage in the cultural evolution of the people of eastern and southern Africa, but not the beginning of settled, farming/domesticating communities.La diffusion de l'agriculture et la technologie de poterie à la région plus grande de l'Afrique orientale et méridional ont était attribué au parleurs des langues bantou. Cependant, la diffusion des aspects semblables au Rift Valley de Kenya et Tanzania, sud au Bassin d'Eyasi et est au Mont Kilimanjaro ont était attribué au parleurs des langues Cushitic. Tandis qu'on peut dater la diffusion de ces innovations à la région du Rift Valley à 3000 BC, il est prétendu que la région restante d'Afrique orientale et méridional ont reçu les innovations similaires seulement après le changement de BC/AD, au temps que la technologie de fer était indroduit. Il n'est pas possible maintenant à sustenir ces théories. La côte de Tanzania, son hinterland immédiat/les regions près de la mer, et les îles de Zanzibar et Mafia, ont étaient colonisé par les personnes qui avait la connaissance de l'agriculture et de la poterie probablement à partir de 3000 BC. On peut trouver aussi que ces innovations ont diffusé à l'Afrique méridional pendant la dernier millénaire avant J. -C. L'introduction de la technologie du fer et la poterie avec le biseau, liée avec les parleurs des langues bantoues, était seulement un autre étape dans l'évolution culturelle du peuple de l'Afrique orientale et méridional. Il n'était pas le commencement des communautés établis qui ont pratiqué l'agricole et la domestication.     

The Cradle of Thought: Growth,Learning, Play and Attachment in Neanderthal Children

Childhood is a core stage in development, essential in the acquisition of social, practical and cultural skills. However, this area receives limited attention in archaeological debate, especially in early prehistory. We here consider Neanderthal childhood, exploring the experience of Neanderthal children using biological, cultural and social evidence. We conclude that Neanderthal childhood experience was subtly different from that of their modern human counterparts, orientated around a greater focus on social relationships within their group. Neanderthal children, as reflected in the burial record, may have played a particularly significant role in their society, especially in the domain of symbolic expression. A consideration of childhood informs broader debates surrounding the subtle differences between Neanderthals and modern humans.     

Post-communist ironies in an East German hotel

On 1 May 2007, a new hotel opened in Berlin: Ostel. As its name implies, it is located in the former East of the city, now 'Berlin Mitte'. The Ostel joined Berlin's burgeoning hotel scene at a time when Ostalgie - the supposed longing East Germans feel for the past - marked no longer a condition of mourning and loss but had become 'hip'. In this article to carry the analysis of Ostalgie beyond the themes of trauma or resistance into the more playful dimensions of what Czech-French writer Milan Kundera (1992) has called 'the joke,' that is, an ironic form of humor ubiquitous in former Soviet and East European contexts. I engage irony as a situated experience and practice chiefly through the 'artful lens' of material culture. In focusing on the Ostel's interior, I am especially interested in irony's 'critical edge'. I argue that it is this edge that makes it possible to open up critical interpretations of German post-unification history.     

Intersections, Networks and the Genesis of Social Complexity on the Nyali Coast of East Africa

This paper examines intersections between different societies occupying the Nyali Coast region of southern Kenya from the late first millennium ad to the mid-second millennium ad. We explore interaction between societies at three scales: between hunter-gatherers and farmers in the coastal hinterland, between the hinterland and the coast and between the coast and the wider Indian Ocean. The patterns indicate that local intersections in the hinterland between hunter-gatherers and farmers went hand-in-hand with both the emergence of larger settlements in the hinterland and on the coast, and participation in a pan-Indian Ocean trade network.     

Rushing for Gold: Mobility and Small‐Scale Mining in East Africa

African rural dwellers have faced depressed economic prospects for several decades. Now, in a number of mineral‐rich countries, multiple discoveries of gold and precious stones have attracted large numbers of prospective small‐scale miners. While their ‘rush’ to, and activities within, mining sites are increasingly being noted, there is little analysis of miners' mobility patterns and material outcomes. In this article, on the basis of a sample survey and interviews at two gold‐mining sites in Tanzania, we probe when and why miners leave one site in favour of another. Our findings indicate that movement is often ‘rushed’ but rarely rash. Whereas movement to the first site may be an adventure, movement to subsequent sites is calculated with knowledge of the many risks entailed. Miners spend considerable time at each site before migrating onwards. Those with the highest site mobility tend to be more affluent than the others, suggesting that movement can be rewarding for those willing to ‘try their luck’ with the hard work and social networking demands of mining another site.     

Pursuing Urban Commons: Politics and Alliances in Community Land Trust Activism in East London

Community land trust (CLT) practices contribute to analyses of the commons in both conceptual and on‐the‐ground ways. As collective action organizations, CLTs emphasize common land stewardship and resist traditional land speculation and development practices through the mitigation or halting of land value inflation. This paper traces the activist efforts of the East London CLT organization, one of Britain's first urban CLTs, in securing common land in the East London borough of Tower Hamlets, and examines their navigation of political decisions and creation of alliances. Although this process has been challenging as a result of neoliberal governance and private development interests, the East London CLT's trajectory demonstrates the frustrations of activism within these contexts but also the small successes in the pursuit and establishment of urban commons.     

Wealth and Well-being in an Ancient Maya Community

Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory - Inequality is an intrinsic element of contemporary societies, with high income disparity impacting everything from life expectancy to violent crime....     

For Richer,for Poorer: Marriage and Casualized Sex in East African Artisanal Mining Settlements

Migrants to Tanzania's artisanal gold mining sites seek mineral wealth, which is accompanied by high risks of occupational hazards, economic failure, AIDS and social censure from their home communities. Male miners in these settlements compete to attract newly arrived young women who are perceived to be diverting male material support from older women and children's economic survival. This article explores the dynamics of monogamy, polygamy and promiscuity in the context of rapid occupational change. It shows how a wide spectrum of productive and welfare outcomes is generated through sexual experimentation, which calls into question conventional concepts of prostitution, marriage and gender power relations.