Treponematosis in Pre-Columbian Jamaica: a biocultural approach to the human cranium found in Bull Savannah

The first inhabitants of Jamaica are now generally referred to as Taínos. It is likely that they arrived in the island after about 650 AD and were extinct by the end of the 16th century. In 1968, during the exploration of a small cave in Bull Savannah, St. Elizabeth parish, Dr. James Lee found two skulls, teeth, bones, and pottery. The aim of this work is to interpret in a biocultural perspective the one cranium with pathological lesions, such as caries sicca. This adult individual had an artificially modified cranium, a cultural practice common among Taínos, which was studied macroscopically and by radiological and computerized tomography. The radiocarbon dates, obtained by AMS, point to the 10th–11th centuries AD and the stable isotopes analysis revealed either the ingestion of a mixed C3/C4 plant diet or an extensive intake of marine resources, the former being more likely. This is the first cranium to be found in Jamaica with evidence of Pre-Columbian treponematosis, most probably syphilis, which has also been demonstrated in a few cases elsewhere in the Caribbean region. This finding agrees with the ethnohistorical narrative, according to which syphilis existed among the native population, who used plant extracts to treat the disease. This paper contributes to our knowledge about the Taínos and the history of treponematosis in the Americas.     

Spatial and Socio-environmental Dynamics of Catalan Regional Planning from a Multivariate Statistical Analysis Using 1980s and 2000s Data

This article summarizes the protocol applied to analyse the spatial consequences of diverse regional plans included in the General Spatial Planning of Catalonia (GSPC) municipalities since 1985. The main aims of the GSPC were to achieve a more balanced distribution of population, avoiding Barcelona metropolitan region congestion, coastal overcrowding and mountain areas depopulation, and to improve mobility infrastructures and social welfare. The methodology used was based on factor analysis that reduced 30 socioeconomic and geographic variables provided by different sources into a smaller number of common factors. Afterwards a non-hierarchical clustering was employed to simplify the analysis of dynamics. The six first common factors retained in the model explained the 82.6% of total variance. After labelling them, six clusters were mapped to describe the most important dynamics: urban sprawl, urbanalization, depopulation, reterritorialization and coastalization. Finally, some socio-environmental consequences of such dynamics are discussed.     

Physical Planning in Entrepreneurial Urban Governance—Experiences from the Bo01 and Brunnshög Projects,Sweden

Recent research has argued that urban policy has turned towards entrepreneurial forms of urban governance, resulting in a more fragmented and decentralized setting within which public policy is formulated and implemented. This implies that the context for public sector urban planning is also influenced by this “turn”. This article questions this “turn” by arguing that, in Sweden and in practice, forms of fragmentation and decentralization coexist with remnants of coherence and centralization. It focuses on two planning projects, one in Malmö and one in Lund. A case study approach is followed, using official documentation and expert interviews. The article indicates that public authorities and planners remain crucial in urban development projects as initiators of projects, when they bring in financial incentives or lease out the plots for development, or when they add to the project's political legitimacy and bring to the table different actors that would otherwise be less likely to join forces. It concludes by discussing how public sector urban planning is adjusting to the changes brought forward by entrepreneurial urban governance. The article contributes to the literature on how urban planning is adapting to changes in the context for urban governance.     

Allochthonous red pigments used in burial practices at the Copper Age site of Valencina de la Concepción (Sevilla,Spain): characterisation and social dimension

The use of red pigments linked to burial practices is widely documented in the Iberian prehistoric record and very often it has been traditionally interpreted as a ritual practice entailing the utilisation of local raw materials (iron oxides). Some research works, nevertheless, have also detected the use of red pigments which can only be interpreted as allochthonous. The red pigments spread over a single inhumation in a monumental Megalithic tomb surrounding Valencina de la Concepción Copper Age settlement was studied by means of X-ray diffraction, field emission scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, X-ray microfluorescence, micro-Raman and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopies. This approach allowed characterising the red pigments as cinnabar, mixed with tiny amounts of iron oxides. The presence of cinnabar, a product that was necessarily imported, in a context of an exceptional set of grave goods, suggests that the use of cinnabar was linked not only to ritual but also to practices related to the display of social status.     

Cleaning Up After Globalization: An Ergonomic Analysis of Work Activity of Hotel Cleaners

Hotels and hotel chains are responding to globalization and increased competition through new marketing initiatives, employment practices, and restructuring decisions that are intensifying the work of cleaners. In this paper, we report on how such work intensification at two hotels in Montréal, Canada, is changing the nature of cleaners’ jobs. Specifically, we found that the numbers of operations to be completed, the numbers and weights of items to be cleaned, and the effort involved have all increased. “Flexible” employment relationships and outsourcing have also worsened cleaners’ workloads. In response to our research, the labour union representing cleaners has negotiated a lower number of room assignments per cleaner, as well as an improved way of taking into account the variability of work when determining the quota of rooms to be cleaned. Despite this, new marketing strategies continue to intensify work. We conclude that standards and regulation on a governmental level are a necessary complement to union actions.