Knee, Garter, Girdle, Hat, Stock, and Spur Buckles from Seven Sites in Portsmouth, New Hampshire

Material culture studies have begun to take new directions within the field of historical archaeology. Shoe buckles are the most familiar and readily identifiable type of buckle to archaeologists, but there are many other buckles worn as part of a person’s dress that may be identified on archaeological sites. Knee, garter, girdle, hat, stock, and spur buckles are regularly recovered. These buckles can be used as an aid to dating archaeological strata and features, and can be employed to understand the kinds of clothing worn by site inhabitants. This paper presents and interprets an assemblage of buckles of assorted types recovered from seven 18th-century domestic sites in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.     

“中国社会科学院考古学论坛·2010年中国考古新发现”纪要

2011年1月11日,由中国社会科学院主办,中国社会科学院考古研究所、考古杂志社承办的第十届中国社会科学院考古学论坛.2010年中国考古新发现在中国社会科学院学术报告厅举行。会上,浙江省文物考古研究所、山西省考古研究所、湖南省     

Soils and vegetation history of abandoned enclosures in the New Forest,Hampshire, England

Soil profiles buried beneath earth banks of five abandoned enclosures, ranging in age from late Bronze Age to early 19th century AD, were compared with unburied profiles inside and outside the enclosures. Soil particle size analyses and micromorphological studies show that the banks were constructed of mixed topsoil and subsoil from adjacent ditches; on some banks the soil has begun to podzolize. At the two oldest sites (Dark Hat and Long Slade Bottom, which are late Bronze or Iron Age) the soils within the enclosures were homogenized, probably by occasional cultivation for cereal growing. At Dark Hat an ironpan has developed on the upper surface of a layer compacted by smearing during cultivation. The later enclosures, at Burley Moor (Anglo-Saxon), East Boldre (mediaeval) and Hatchet Gate (early 19th century AD), were probably used entirely for pasture. Pollen assemblages from the buried soils and overlying banks, and chemical comparisons of the buried soils with profiles inside and outside the enclosures together provide new evidence for a history of soil and vegetation changes over the past 2500–3500 years. Heathland vegetation associated with podzolic soils existed on plateau gravels before the late Bronze Age, but on other parent materials heath vegetation and acidic soils with incipient podzolization appeared only in later periods. The present patchy vegetation pattern of mainly deciduous woodland with open areas of ferny grassland and heath seems to have persisted since before the late Bronze Age. The most obvious human influences on the vegetation during the last 2000 years have been periodic temporary use of open areas and woodland clearings for protected grazing.     

Prehistoric Molluscan Faunas of the Yazoo River,Mississippi, USA: Archaeological Perspectives for Modern Conservation

Archaeological faunal assemblages can provide data valuable to modern conservation ecology. For example, while freshwater mussels (Bivalvia: Unionidae, Margaritiferidae) are common constituents in the archaeological record of North America, today they are one of the world’s most imperiled faunal groups. Efforts to aid habitat restoration, population growth, and species reintroduction can be informed by studies of prehistoric mussel assemblages. These data can provide a historical perspective, cataloging communities as they existed prior to extensive modern impacts, thus representing an ecological baseline to be compared with modern populations. This study focuses on two late prehistoric (ca. 300–600 AD) sites on the Yazoo River, where nearly 24,000 freshwater mussel valves were recovered. Though modern data are extremely limited for the river, analysis revealed it once supported a diverse mussel community containing numerous species currently considered rare, endangered, or extinct in Mississippi. In total, the combined shell assemblages yielded 23 new river records for the Yazoo River. One species in particular, Quadrula fragosa, represents the second such occurrence in Mississippi, and bolsters its candidate status as a new state record, as argued in a recent report from a neighbouring river in the Yazoo Basin.     

留英学生与五四新文化运动——以《太平洋》杂志为中心

五四时期留英学生的思想活动鲜见论者讨论.本文以留英学生1917年初创刊于上海的<太平洋>杂志为中心,讨论其同人群体及其文化思想和教育主张.作为留英学界的一股知识力量,<太平洋>同人所提供的新思想观念,对于五四新文化运动具有积极推动和引导作用,这与以<新青年>作为运动的指导力量并无二致.但<太平洋>的思想背景有着浓厚的英伦调和主义色彩.     

The history of silver refining in New Spain, 16c to 18c: back to the basics

The refining of silver ores in New Spain was defined by the chemical nature of the silver ore. Argentiferous galena (lead sulphide) could only be refined by smelting (36% silver produced), irrespective of silver content, and amalgamation (64%) could only be applied to the silver sulphide ores. Both processes were transferred from Europe, but amalgamation was transformed by local expertise from a recipe of limited application to an industrial-scale solution for refining sulphidic silver ores. Its implementation shaped the environmental history of colonial silver refining in the New World. Mercury was consumed mainly through its chemical conversion into calomel, with minimal emissions of volatile mercury. Waste silt and liquid mercury in the soil and waterways were its main legacy. Smelting created a greater impact on the environment of New Spain, via lead in lead fumes as the main heavy metal issued to the air, and its depletion of woodlands. This article argues that a technical analysis of period refining practices in New Spain reorients our understanding of Spain’s imperial relations with its New World colonies, of the role of local knowledge in a global economy of silver production, and of environmental issues in colonial history. It thus speaks to the problem of unpacking the complex web of relations that composed early European imperialism, in which were enmeshed commodities such as silver, cotton and sugar.     

An Archaeological Study of a Streetcar Suburb: The East Main Streetcar Barns and Hayward-Hobbie Subdivisions,City of Rochester,New York

ABSTRACT

In order to appreciate the social dimensions of the industrial past, any research examining how working people both laboured and lived must recognise that sites of production and distribution may share a close relationship with the household, a relationship that will influence consumption and settlement patterns. Using artefactual and documentary evidence, this paper examines the initiation and growth of the Beechwood neighbourhood, a former streetcar suburb, located in the eastern section of the City of Rochester in western New York State. Streetcar suburbs in cities throughout the United States have received attention from geographers and urban historians for some time. This paper builds on previous studies by considering how transportation infrastructure — here, a maintenance facility and railyard for repairing inter-urban and intra-urban trolley cars — influenced the demographic and material patterns in one section of the neighbourhood in the first decades of the 20th century.     

Archaeological Investigations in the Harbours of Burgaz,Turkey: 2011–2015 field seasons

Between 2011 and 2015 archaeological fieldwork was conducted in the Archaic through Late Antique harbours associated with Burgaz on the Datça Peninsula in south‐west Turkey. This work focused on survey and documentation of built features associated with the four harbours, limited stratigraphic excavation, and identification of shipwrecks and seafaring activity outside the harbours. The results offer new insights into the growth, expansion, and eventual abandonment of the port complex, its development alongside the urban settlement, and its changing maritime dynamics in light of economic shifts across the peninsula and the eastern Mediterranean.     

Workfare–Warfare: Neoliberalism, "Active" Welfare and the New American Way of War

Abstract:  In recent decades, welfare reform in the USA has increasingly been based on a political imperative to reduce the number of people on welfare. This has in large part taken place through the establishment of a "workfare" state, in which the receipt of state benefits requires a paid labor input. Designed to reduce expenditure on civil social services, welfare-to-work programs have been introduced. At the same time, the restructuring of US defense provision has seen the "military–industrial complex" emerge as a key beneficiary of state expenditure. Both of these trends can be characterized, this paper argues, as manifestations of neoliberal thinking—whether in the form of the "workfarism" that is undertaken to bolster the US economy, or the "defense transformation" that has been intended to enhance US war-making capacity. While these two aspects have been analyzed in detail independently, the aim of this paper is to probe the similarities, connections and overlaps between the workfare state and the recent American emphasis on high-technology warfare—the so-called "Revolution in Military Affairs"—and "defense transformation". There are, the paper argues, strong homologies to be drawn between the restructuring of the American defense and welfare infrastructures. Furthermore there are also instances where warfare and welfare are being melded together into a hybrid form "workfare–warfare", in which military service is increasingly positioned as a means of gaining welfare and, conversely, traditionally military industries are becoming involved in the area of welfare provision. The result, it is argued, is an emergent form of workfare–warfare state in the USA.     

Politics and Eschatology: Reassessing the Appeal of the “Jewish Indian” Theory in England and New England in the 1650s

This article examines the “Jewish Indian” theory — which claimed that American Indians were the ten lost tribes of Israel — in 1650s England and New England. The theory found support in England while failing in New England. This difference in reception can be explained by considering its ecclesiological, political, and eschatological implications. Biblical commentators in both England and New England held to a form of “Judeo‐Centric” eschatology, which looked for a sudden, miraculous conversion of the Jews and their eventual superiority to Gentile believers. Such beliefs undermined crucial elements of New England ecclesiology when applied to Native Americans. Conversely, the New England Company used the theory in its publications as a fund‐raising tool in England. These publications impacted upon debates on Jewish readmission to England in the mid‐1650s, with New England missionary models suggested as a way of evangelising Jews. This article therefore argues for the importance of understanding eschatological beliefs in local contexts, while demonstrating the way in which such beliefs can be maintained and reoriented in the face of apparent disconfirmation.     

Beyond the local: places,people, and brands in New England beer marketing

Despite decades of domination by a few large companies, the American beer market has seen a dramatic resurgence of microbreweries. Contrary to conventional oligopolistic market theories, small firms have consistently gained market share from their entrenched competitors. Researchers have attributed this success to “neolocalism.” Through their marketing, microbreweries appeal to consumers’ desire for connections to real people and distinctive products from local places. However, no study has verified whether this pattern is most characteristic of microbreweries. With newer firms threatening their market share, larger firms might adopt neolocal claims, but little empirical attention has been directed at large brewers, and mid-sized, regional firms have been largely ignored by researchers. This paper uses content analysis of beer packaging to investigate the nature of the appeals made to consumers. I find that while microbreweries do make neolocal claims, regional breweries are more likely to associate their products with places on a local scale. Large breweries make few such claims, but instead rely on “reflexive branding”: marketing that refers back to the brand itself rather than borrowing existing symbolism from people or places. These findings partly support the neolocal perspective, but also challenge our expectations of which firms use neolocal appeals the most.     

Heroes and the renegotiation of national identity in American history textbooks: representations of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, 1982–2003

ABSTRACT. American history textbooks for the USA's public schools act as quasi‐official loci for the renegotiation of national identity and are, as such, subject to much controversy. The choice of heroes and the way in which textbooks depict them display the interplay between competing visions of popular ethno‐history and scholarly historiography. This article examines contemporary renegotiation of the national narrative through an analysis of the evolving representation of the USA's two most prominent traditional national heroes – George Washington and Abraham Lincoln – in history textbooks for elementary‐school students published from the early 1980s to 2003. This period marks the development of the multiculturalist movement and its subsequent conservative backlash, with debates intensifying in the wake of the events of 11 September 2001.     

Materials,skills and gender identities: men,women and home improvement practices in New Zealand

The article explores the interactions of materials, skills and gender identity through examining DIY practices in New Zealand. It traces the relationship between materials used for home repairs, the competences needed to use them and the (re)production of specific gendered identities. It argues that housing and building materials were an important part of the European settler history of the country and this history forms the context within which New Zealanders work on their houses today. Drawing on interviews with 30 Pākehā homeowners, it explores how both men and women respond to the materials of their homes, how skills are acquired in relation to the demands of the materials used and how these skills become part of the (re)production of specific white, heterosexual gender identities. The figure of the ‘Kiwi bloke’ is discussed as an important imaginary in the negotiation of gender identities for both men and women. Interviewees saw their DIY activities in the light of the creation and re-creation of this specific national and gendered identity. The article reveals the intertwining of history and materiality in the continual negotiation and contestation of gendered identities.     

Pastoralism and politics: reinterpreting contests for territory in Auckland Province, New Zealand, 1853–1864

As colonial frontiers expanded in the nineteenth century, contests over access to land suitable for farming between pastoralists, small farmers and indigenous populations were the inevitable result. In colonial Auckland, this contest was particularly vigorous, firstly because the young settlement's economic survival was at stake, since environmental constraints largely prevented its participation in the lucrative New Zealand wool industry, and secondly, because the economic and military prowess of indigenous Maori meant that settlers had little room to move in. Auckland's wealthy pastoralists pinned their hopes on the occupation of Maori land to the south of Auckland, since this was more suitable for sheep than the settlement's immediate environs, but this required dispossessing the Maori population by force. Initially, this obstacle gave small farmers a political advantage over the pastoralists, but as firstly arable markets, and then plans for small farmers and Maori to rear sheep themselves, all faltered, the pastoralist cause became increasingly difficult for colonial authorities to resist. When these authorities finally turned against the Maori communities south of Auckland, and launched an imperial war against them, the pastoralists successfully lobbied for the lands they most coveted to be confiscated from Maori, an event that radically altered New Zealand's future economic geography.     

The New York and the Josephine: two steamships of the Charles Morgan Line

Charles Morgan (1795 to 1882) was one of the most important figures in the development of steam packet service in the United States. Morgan's career spanned over a half century, during which he controlled some 117 steamships. Of the three known wrecks of Morgan Line steamers, two, the New York (1837–1845) and the Josephine (1867–1881), have been documented by the Minerals Management Service, a Federal agency responsible for overseeing the extraction of mineral resources on the Outer Continental Shelf. The two vessels document the changing technology of steam navigation through the middle part of the 19th century.     

Post‐political planning and community opposition: asserting and challenging consensus in planning urban regeneration in Newcastle,New South Wales

This paper examines recent urban regeneration plans for inner city Newcastle, in New South Wales, Australia. The focus is on recent plans to rejuvenate the historical commercial centre of the city—the Hunter Street Mall. Recent plans for the city are positioned as post‐political efforts by planning and development agents to limit antagonistic politics and secure consensus around a future planning vision. Core to this new vision is high‐rise development. Formal and technocratic consultation processes are central to efforts to secure consensus and limit conflict. Yet, conflict nevertheless arises as local residents, community groups, and politicians oppose the planning vision pursued by planning and development agents. Debates about the need for regeneration and the form of regeneration surface as central points of contest. Likewise, the material configuration of the city and wider political context frame both post‐political planning efforts and oppositional politics. The paper contributes to a growing body of work by scholars who question the presence of a dominant, overarching post‐political condition. Rather, post‐political efforts emerge as contextual and fluid processes to secure the planning and development objectives of urban elites. As the case study illustrates, such post‐political efforts are rarely unchallenged, as contest and antagonistic politics emerge, allowing citizens to resist the efforts of state and development actors and help shape their cities.     

Reregulating for Freshwater Enclosure: A State of Exception in Canterbury,Aotearoa New Zealand

In this paper, we argue that democracy is increasingly indistinguishable from authoritarianism, in a process that is entangled with neoliberalisms. To build this argument, we examine a case study of central government intervention in regional environmental decision making in Aotearoa New Zealand through the lens of Agamben's “state of exception”. The intervention—unprecedented and unconstitutional—squeezed democratic spaces for decision making about freshwater and sought to smooth the way for capital accumulation. The audacity of government actions indicate, we argue, an abandonment of efforts to disguise neoliberal encroachments on democracy, known as the double truth tactic. Yet we also argue that in identifying this as a state of exception, we can examine it as part of a process and therefore demonstrate the possibilities for counter‐hegemonic actions to emerge.     

From Blood to Oil: Mining,Cosmology, and Human Sacrifice in Central New Guinea

This article explores the intersection between cosmological history and mining geography among the Oksapmin of West Sepik Province. I show that the recent intrusion of mining activity into the local area has catalysed a revival of indigenous religious traditions to explain the occurrence and ownership of the precious materials believed to exist within the ground. Through an analysis of these parts of local cosmological history used to explain contemporary mining, I also seek to ethnographically and historically position the Oksapmin as a hybrid culture mutually influenced by the intersection of two overlapping regional cultural spheres: the Min cultural region, based on the ancestress Afek to the west, and a western highlands model based on sacrificial ritual to restore the vitality of the biocosmos, to the east. This builds upon earlier research done by anthropologists in the area that, on the one hand, portrays the Oksapmin as an anomalous ethnic group in the Min culture area and, on the other hand, that has stressed links between groups lying on either side of the upper Strickland Gorge. I also argue that the Oksapmin, Duna, and Bimin groups all shared a unique trans‐Strickland cosmological identity characterised by the pursuit of world renewal by means of human sacrifice.