Folk-Tales of the Aborigines of New South Wales

THE WITCH-CULT IN WESTERN EUROPE. A STUDY IN ANTHROPOLOGY. MARGARET ALICE MURRAY. Oxford: at the Clarendon Press. 1921. Pp. 303. Price 16s. Reviewed by W. R. Halliday.

THE SEMA NAGAS. By J. H. HUTTON, C.I. E., M.A., I.C.S. Published by direction of the Assam Administration. London : Macmillan &; Co. 1921. Price 40s. net. Reviewed by A. C. Haddon.

ANCIENT TALES FROM MANY LANDS : A COLLECTION OF FOLK STORIES. By R. M. FLEMING. With an Introduction by H. J. FLEURE, D.Sc. London: Benn Bros. 1922. Price 10s. 6d. Reviewed by A. Hingston Quiggin.

ASPECTS OF ANCIENT INDIAN POLITY. By NARENDRA NATH LAW, M.A., B.L. ; with a Foreword by ARTHUR BERRIEDALE KEITH, D.C.L., D.Litt. Oxford University Press. London: Milford. Reviewed by H. A. Rose.     

The Application of SfM Photogrammetry Software for Extracting Artifact Provenience from Palaeolithic Excavation Surfaces

While photogrammetry has become popular in archaeology and heritage management as an effective, low-cost method for generating detailed three-dimensional models, it remains to be established that the accuracy of model-derived measurements is sufficient for analytical purposes. Based on an expedient, in-field model processing protocol, we report preliminary results concerning the accuracy of artifact provenience information derived from photogrammetry models of excavation surfaces at the Upper Palaeolithic site of Shuidonggou Locality 2 in China. Error in model-derived provenience can range easily into the centimeter scale; accuracy in some spatial axes are significantly, but weakly, affected by the size of the sampled surface. While the observed error range is larger than thresholds proposed for Palaeolithic excavations, it is arguably acceptable in settings where the analytical demand for provenience precision is lower. We identify possible sources of error and discuss how model accuracy can be improved by additional systematic testing.     

Provenience,age and associations of archaic Homo sapiens crania from Lake Eyasi,Tanzania

Fifty years ago, an ethnographic expedition found primitive human fossils at Lake Eyasi, Tanzania. Subsequent emphasis has centered almost exclusively on cranial morphology, neglecting the discovery site and associated finds. Fauna has been deemed “essentially modern” and racemization dates suggest a late Pleistocene age for the hominid remains; these assessments have been advanced as consistent with a “terminal Middle Stone Age” antiquity. Based on recent observations at the site and new sediment analyses, a provisional sequence is now proposed: an earlier formation, the Eyasi Beds, is distinguished from later Pleistocene deposits, the Mumba Beds, the latter being partially calibrated by uranium series and radiocarbon dates. This evidence indicates that the Eyasi Beds, the probable source of the human fossils, are older than 130,000 years, and the fauna may include seven extinct large mammal species. Documented Eyasi Beds artifacts are mostly unspecialized Middle Stone Age types; no typological or technical features suggest later MSA specializations or innovations foreshadowing Later Stone Age industries. A series of core tools from the lakeshore suggests an industry of Sangoan aspect. All lines of evidence from the locality contradict the young amino acid racemization dates; artifacts and fauna, including archaic Homo sapiens remains, are of probable Middle Pleistocene age.     

Negro problems in tropical Africa: Reviews of recent books

Changes in Scottish planning since the 1960s are discussed, especially the greater involvement of central government and increased consultation with the public. Steady pressure from the economic crisis and from technological change has limited the scope of the regions in planning though they retain a strategic role.     

Paradoxes,Protests and the Mujeres de Negro of Northern Mexico

On November 25, 2002, thousands of people marched through the streets of Mexico City and demanded, in the name of social justice, an end to the violence against women in northern Mexico. ‘Ni Una Más’ (not one more) was their chant and is also the name of their social justice campaign. Their words referred to the hundreds of women and girls who have died violent and brutal deaths in northern Mexico and to the several hundred more who have disappeared over the last ten years. These Ni Una Más marchers, many working with human rights and feminist organizations in Mexico, are protesting against the political disregard and lack of accountability, at all levels of government, in relation to this surging violence against women. And the symbolic leaders of their movement are the Mujeres de Negro (women wearing black), who are based in Chihuahua City. In this article, I examine how the Mujeres de Negro demonstrate how feminist politics so often plays upon the negotiation of spatial paradoxes in order to open new arenas for women's political agency. For while the Mujeres de Negro of northern Mexico are galvanizing an international human rights movement that is challenging political elites, they are also reinforcing many of the traditional prohibitions against women's access to politics and the public sphere. And I explore how the Mujeres de Negro devise a spatial strategy for navigating this paradox in an increasingly dangerous political environment.     

An Analysis of Certain Finnish Origins

Religious poetry is generally considered the fruit of a people's long reflection on their relationship with their gods, with the ancestors, and with the partly seen and unseen universe. It is used to celebrate events in the life of the individual and the community, to express fellowship, and as a powerful means of communication. Thus, religious poetry is an integral element of a people's heritage. In this paper, I intend to present some forms of religious poetry, which are found among the Bakossi people of Cameroon, in order to show how magically-oriented formulaic expressions are used in order to maintain adherence to the normative order of society. The point I intend to make is that the incantatory form of religious poetry, was, and still is, used among the Bakossi people of Cameroon, as well as in other parts of rural Africa in terms of individual and communal education.