Hope and everyday crisis: Young adult experiences in COVID-free Tasmania

The COVID-19 pandemic is characterised by more than mass viral spread. Interviews with young adults in the Australian island-state of Tasmania narrate how COVID-19 is shared socially, economically, and biologically, but not equally. During the time interviews were done, border policies separated Tasmania from mass infections experienced elsewhere, giving us an opportunity to understand how separation does not equate with a lack of socio-material and emotional impact from the pandemic. Recognising spatially diverse impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic means becoming more reflexively aware of the structural inequalities informing how it has been experienced, particularly in the early period of the pandemic. We warn against exclusionary narratives of the pandemic that do not value impacts on those without high physical risk or exposure to the virus. Responding to such exclusionary narratives involves promoting a form of hope that is reflexive, self-aware, and critical. We develop on these aims by reference to the themes of COVID-19 as a syndemic, the temporal narrative of a boom-bust cycle, and COVID-19 as a crisis in everyday life.     

Haciendas and economic change in Yucatán: Entrepreneurial strategies in the Parroquia de Yaxcabá, 1775–1850

Using archaeological and historical data from eighteenth- and nineteenth-century haciendas in theParroquia de Yaxcabá, Yucatán, this paper demonstrates how documentary records can be employed to create diachronic archaeological explanations. Both the organization of production on the hacienda and the entrepreneurial strategies pursued by the estate owners. contribute to the form of the hacienda. The following analysis suggests quantitative and qualitative explanations for variation in hacienda size and architectural elaboration. The archaeological interpretations offer a reconsideration of processes of economic change in central Yucatán prior to the Caste War of 1847.     

REVIEW

Feasts of Honour. Ritual and Change in the Toraja Highlands. By Toby Alice Volkman Chicago: University of Illinois Press. 1985. Pp. xii + 216. Maps, photographs.     

The Saharan divide in the Nile Valley: the evidence from Qasr Ibrim

Recent research at Qasr Ibrim in Egyptian Nubia shows that, during the last 3000 years, this hill-top site commanding a long stretch of the Nile in the First Cataract region was usually controlled by polities centered further to the south — Napatan, Meroitic and Christian. Even when controlled by northerners — Greek, Roman or Turkish — is was still a frontier post. It is suggested that this evidence, showing that the frontier between the states dominating the Lower and Middle Nile was located as far north as the First Cataract, helps explain the lack of Mediterranean influence in the Upper Nile basin and, beyond, in sub-Saharan Africa. The Nubian Corridor was, in fact, blocked so far north that it is best described as a cul de sac.

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Résumé Les recherches menées à Qasr Ibrim dans la Nubie égyptienne ces dernières années montrent que ce site, qui domine du sommet d'une colline une partie assez grande du Nil dans la région de la première cataracte, a été controlé pendant les trois derniers millénaires par une série de royaumes dont les centres se situaient plus au sud — royaumes de Napata et Meröe, royaume chrétien. Qasr Ibrim restait un poste frontière même quand il passait sous contrôle des peuples du nord — grecques, romains ou turques. Ces données, qui montrent que la frontière entre les royaumes qui dominaient le bas Nil et ceux qui dominaient le moyen Nil se trouvaient très au nord jusqu'à la première cataracte, peuvent nous aider à comprendre l'absence d'influences méditerranéennes dans le bassin de l'haut Nil et au délà, dans l'Afrique au sud du Sahara. A vrai dire, le coloir nubien était barré autant au nord qu'il mérite d'être considéré plutôt comme une impasse.

     

Reviews

Henry Mayer and Liz Kirby, ARGAP 2: A second Research Guide to Australian Politics and Cognate Subjects, Melbourne, Longman Cheshire, 1984, pp. 254. $39.95 (paper)

Patrick Weller, First Among Equals: Prime Ministers in Westminster Systems, Sydney, Allen & Unwin, 1985, pp. 228. $14.95 (cloth)

Kosmas Tsokhas, A Class Apart? Businessmen and Australian Politics 1960–1980, Melbourne, Oxford University Press, 1984, pp. xvii, 197. $25.00 (cloth)

H. P. Lee, Emergency Powers, Sydney, Law Book Company, 1984, pp. 334. $50.00 (cloth)

Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, Aborigines and Uranium: Consolidated Report to the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs on the Social Impact of Uranium on the Aborigines of the Northern Territory, Canberra, Australian Government Publishing Service, 1984, pp. 318. $15.40 (paper)

Tim Duncan and John Fogarty, Australia and Argentina: On Parallel Paths, Melbourne, Melbourne University Press, 1985, pp. 203. $22.50 (paper)

Gil Duthie, I Had 50,000 Bosses: Memoirs of a Labor Backbencher, 1946–1975, Sydney, Angus and Robertson, 1984, pp.366. $14.95 (paper)

Sidney Sax, A Strife of Interests: Politics and Policies in Australian Health Services, Sydney, Allen & Unwin, 1984, pp.274. $14.95 (paper)

Roger Milliss, Serpent's Tooth, Ringwood, Penguin, 1984, pp.482. $9.95 (paper)

P. Dwyer, B. Wilson, R. Woock, Confronting School and Work: Youth and Class Cultures in Australia, Sydney, Allen & Unwin, 1984, pp. 175, $10.95 (paper)

Roy Kriegler and Grant Stendal (eds), At Work: Australian Experiences, Sydney, Allen & Unwin in association with National Institute of Labour Studies, 1984, pp.228. $9.95 (paper)

Peter Loveday and Dean Jaensch (eds), A Landslide Election. The NT 1983, Darwin, Australian National University North Australia Research Unit Monograph, 1984, pp.86. $8.00 (paper)

Bruce McCallum, The Public Service Manager: An introduction to personnel management in the Australian Public Service, Melbourne, Longman Cheshire, 1984, pp.450, $19.95.

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Dennis Woodward, Andrew Parkin, John Summers (eds), Government, Politics and Power in Australia, 3rd edition, Melbourne, Longman Cheshire, 1985, pp xiii + 373 (paperback).

Drew Cottle (ed.), Capital Essays, Sydney, General Studies Department, University of New South Wales, 1984, pp.104. $7.00 (paper)

G. S. Reid (ed), The Role of Upper Houses Today, Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Workshop of the Australasian Study of Parliament Group, 1983, pp.180, n.p.a.

R. A. Herr (ed.), Party Committees: The Implications For Parliament. Proceedings of the Third Special Workshop of the Australasian Study of Parliament Group, 1983, pp.115, n.p.a.

Dean Jaensch and Max Teichmann, The Macmillan Dictionary of Australian Politics, Second Edition, Melbourne, Macmillan, 1984, pp. 236. $12.95 (paper)

David Green and Lawrence Cromwell, Multual Aid or Welfare State: Australia's Friendly Societies, Sydney, Allen and Unwin, 1984, pp.229. $11.95 (paper).

Tatchell, M. (ed.) Perspectives in health policy, Health Economics Research Unit, ANU, Canberra, 1984.

Yemon Wright, David Lange, Prime Minister, Wellington, Unwin Paperbacks (with Port Nicholson Press), 1984, pp.146. $10.95 (paper)

Michael Useem, The Inner Circle: Large Corporations and the Rise of Business Political Activity in the United States and the United Kingdom, New York, Oxford University Press, 1984, pp.246. $39.00 (cloth)

Rokuro Hidaka, The Price of Affluence: Dilemmas of Contemporary Japan, Ringwood, Penguin Books, 1985, pp.196. $7.95 (paper)

Masahide Shibusawa, Japan and the Asian‐Pacific Region: Profile of Change, London & Sydney, Croom Helm for the Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1984, pp. 196. $35.95 (cloth)

John Gyford, Local Politics in Britain, Second Edition, London & Canberra, Croom Helm, 1984, pp. 171. $13.95 (paper)

Michael Clyne, Language and Society in the German‐speaking Countries, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1984, pp.205, $46.50. $12.95 (paper)

R. J. May (ed.), Micronationalist Movements in Papua New Guinea, Political and Social Change Monograph 1, Canberra, Department of Political and Social Change, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University, 1982, pp. xiv + 486, with maps and photographs. $9.50 (paper)

Arend Lijphart and Bernard Grofman (eds), Choosing an Electoral System: Issues and Alternatives, New York, Praeger, 1984, pp.269. $32.95 (cloth)

Stuart Harris (ed.), Australia's Antarctic Policy Options, Canberra, Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies, 1984, pp.412. $15.95 (paper).

Lily Gardner Feldman, The Special Relationship between West Germany and Israel, Boston & London, Allen and Unwin, 1984, pp.330. $65.00 (cloth)

James P. Piscatori (ed.), Islam in the Political Process, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1983, pp.240. $20.50 (paper)

Ritchie Ovendale, The Origins of the Arab‐Israeli Wars, London, Longman, 1984, pp 232. $16.50 (paper)

Stephen Green, Taking Sides: America's Secret Relations with a Militant Israel, 1948–1967, London and Boston, Faber and Faber, 1984, pp. 370. $29.95 (cloth)

Joseph Camilleri, The State and Nuclear Power, Brighton, Harvester/Wheatsheaf, 1984, pp. 347. $62.50 (cloth)

Brian Martin, Uprooting War, London, Freedom Press, 1984, pp. 298. Australian distributor Canberra Peacemakers, GPO Box 1875, Canberra 2601. $8.00 (paper)

Boris Frankel, Beyond the State? Dominant Theories and Socialist Strategies, London, Mac‐millan, 1983, pp.322. $ 17.95 (paper)

Paul E. Corcoran (ed.), Before Marx: Socialism and Communism in France, 1830–48, London, Macmillan, 1983, pp.237. $60.00 (cloth)

Anthony Brewer, A Guide to Marx's ‘Capital’, London, Cambridge University Press, 1984, pp. 211. $12.50 (paper)

Lynda Birke and Jonathan Silvertown (eds), More than the Parts: Biology and Politics, London and Sydney, Pluto Press, 1984, pp.268. $19.95 (paper)

Peter Wellington (ed.), Civil Liberties 1984, Oxford, Martin Robertson, 1984, pp.379. $49.95 (cloth), $17.95 (paper)

Ellen Frankel Paul, Fred D. Miller, Jr.; and Jeffrey Paul (eds), Human Rights, Oxford, Basil Blackwell, 1984, pp.175. $16.95 (paper)     

Stable isotope analysis on human remains from the final Early Holocene in the southern Puna of Argentina: The case of Peñas de las Trampas 1.1

In this work are presented the results of isotopic analyses made on bone remains of human individuals (n?=?6) from the southern Puna of Argentina dated to the final Early Holocene (ca. 8230–8000 BP). They were found in structures located in Peñas de las Trampas 1.1, a rockshelter at 3582 m.a.s.l. in Antofagasta de la Sierra, in the southern Argentinian Puna. They contain multiple secondary burials. Bone fragments were recovered from at least six individuals, three in each structure. Stable isotopes of Carbon (δ¹³C) and Nitrogen (δ¹⁵N) analysis were aimed at defining aspects related to the palaeodiet of the six individuals within the palaeo-economic subsistence spectrum typical of hunter–gatherers. It is worth noting that these human remains are among the earliest from North-Western Argentina, where funeral practices are related with the transportation of certain anatomical parts. The palaeodietary inference considers, on the one hand, the extreme aridity of this geographical area and its impact on the isotopic ecology. And, on the other, it takes into account the fact that four of the six individuals under study were breastfed infants. The results are in agreement with the expected values of the period, which has been characterized as the beginning of the arid Altithermal.