Paracondylar process: Manifestation of an occipital vertebra

In the examination of over 1300 burials from medieval Canterbury, one individual displayed a well-defined paracondylar process. Four other adults and two children presented with small tubercles at the same site. The aetiology of the trait is discussed with reference to cranial base variants and the so-called manifestation of an occipital vertebra.     

Faith-based Queer Space in Washington,DC: The Metropolitan Community Church-DC and Mount Vernon Square

Religion and spirituality are important in queer place-making processes. More than a private part of life relegated beneath sexual identity, religious affiliation and spirituality motivate queers to interpret, experience, and shape space in distinct ways. Just as studies of queer residential spaces have neglected religion and spirituality, so have studies of queer religiosity and spirituality ignored less morally charged arenas of life such as residential choices and gentrification. Considering the material impact of spirituality and religion and understanding competing visions for the future of space in queer residential communities contributes to a clearer view of queer residential strategies. In Washington, DC, Christian queers are working with others to shape a distinct residential space called Mount Vernon Square. This ethnographic study offers a broader framework for understanding how some queers integrate sexuality and spirituality in their residential choices.     

Population and Affective Perception: Biopolitics and Anticipatory Action in US Counterinsurgency Doctrine

Abstract: This paper analyses the biopolitical logics of current US counterinsurgency doctrine in the context of the multiple forms of biopower that make up the “war on terror”. It argues that counterinsurgency doctrine aims to prevent spectral networked insurgencies by intervening on the “environment” of insurgent formation—the relations between three different enactments of “population” (species being, logistical life and ways of life) and a fourth—affectively imbued perception. Counterinsurgency is best characterised, then, as an “environmentality” (Foucault M 2008 The Birth of Biopolitics: Lectures at the Collége De France, 1978–1979. Translated by G Burchell. London: Palgrave Macmillan) that redeploys elements from other forms of biopolitics alongside an emphasis on network topologies, future‐orientated action and affective perception.     

The role of labrid fish in prehistoric economics in New Zealand

Labrids are one of the most common types of fish to occur in inshore rocky marine habitats in New Zealand. There are major discontinuities in their relative abundance in archaeological sites from different regions of New Zealand, and these are difficult to reconcile with known distributional patterns. A number of possible explanations are examined such as changes in fishing technology and various ecological factors. It is concluded that the reasons for these observed fluctuations may vary considerably from one case to another, but where large numbers were caught by prehistoric people who had access to alternative fish resources, unreliability of some major aspect of the economy may be inferred. A combination of poor sea conditions and marginal horticulture is likely to increase the importance of labrid fish.