Irrigated taro (Colocasia esculenta) farming in North Kohala,Hawai‘i: sedimentology and soil nutrient analyses

How did traditional farming transform the natural environment in the Hawaiian Islands? This question is one that has largely been addressed for rainfed farming of crops like sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas), but evidence is lacking for irrigated farming of the critical staple crop taro (Colocasia esculenta). We describe the results of soil nutrient and sedimentological analyses of deeply-stratified pondfield deposits representing a 600-year-long record of irrigated taro farming in the North Kohala District, Hawai‘i Island. Soil is categorized by particle size to determine modes of transport and deposition, and concurrent soil nutrient analyses were conducted to infer shifts in the source of sediments and changes associated with taro harvesting. The advent of farming is clearly detectable in sedimentology, the presence of charcoal found within sediments, and soil chemistry. However, diminished nutrient concentrations can be attributed largely to deposition of a mixture of upstream sediments. Overall, there is no clear evidence for nutrient draw-down by taro harvesting, but we cannot yet rule it out as a factor. This study demonstrates the inherent difficulty of correlating changes in soil nutrients evident in irrigated pondfields with the long term history of soil nutrient cycling.     

The role of canids in ritual and domestic contexts: new ancient DNA insights from complex hunter–gatherer sites in prehistoric Central California

This study explores the interrelationship between the genus Canis and hunter–gatherers through a case study of prehistoric Native Americans in the San Francisco Bay-Sacramento Delta area. A distinctive aspect of the region's prehistoric record is the interment of canids, variously classified as coyotes, dogs, and wolves. Since these species are difficult to distinguish based solely on morphology, ancient DNA analysis was employed to distinguish species. The DNA study results, the first on canids from archaeological sites in California, are entirely represented by domesticated dogs (including both interments and disarticulated samples from midden deposits). These results, buttressed by stable isotope analyses, provide new insight into the complex interrelationship between humans and canids in both ritual and prosaic contexts, and reveal a more prominent role for dogs than previously envisioned.     

Signs of sinusitis in times of urbanization in Viking Age-Early Medieval Sweden

The influence and possible negative impact on sinus health of living conditions in rural and urban environments in Viking Age (AD 800–1050) and Early Medieval Sweden (AD 1050–1200) is investigated. Skeletal samples from 32 rural settlements in the Mälaren Valley (AD 750–1200) and burials in the nearby proto-urban port of trade Birka (AD 750–960) are examined. Based on the diagnostic criteria for maxillary sinusitis used in earlier studies, the results show that there is no significant difference in the prevalence of signs of sinusitis between the two materials (i.e. the Mälaren Valley versus Birka). Consequently, this provides no evidence that living in a proto-urban environment had a negative impact on sinus health. However, when compared with previously studied samples from the early medieval town Sigtuna, dated to AD 970–1100, the populations of the Mälaren Valley and Birka show significantly lower frequencies of bone changes interpreted as chronic maxillary sinusitis (95%, 70% and 82% respectively). This implies that the urban environment of Sigtuna could have led to impaired sinus health. There is also a significant difference between males and females in the Birka material, in which more females (100%) than males (68%) were affected. A gender based differentiation in work tasks is suggested by this, or exposure to environmental risk factors that affect sinus health. No difference between males and females could be detected in the samples from the Mälaren Valley and Sigtuna.     

Pomp,circumstance, and wild Arabs: The 1912 royal visit to Sudan

This article examines the use of British-imperial symbolism in public life throughout the period of the Anglo-Egyptian Condominium. The visit of George V to Port Sudan in 1912 proved the catalyst for large-scale imperial display, which was subsequently reworked into the unique annual commemoration of King's Day. Through such overt imperial pageantry, the British-dominated Sudanese government actively promoted its own position within Sudan at the expense of its Egyptian co-rulers, a strategy which illustrates the political tensions along the Nile Valley. Demonstrating the government's dominance over the landscape and people of Sudan to both the metropolitan and Sudanese audiences, these imperial events aimed at consolidating Britain's hold over the country throughout the Condominium. Sudanese political elites soon became active participants in imperial displays, seeing an opportunity to secure their position through demonstrations of loyalty, and using the propagated values of imperialism and monarchy in imaginative and selective ways. Although it was a valuable tool in creating a focal point of Sudanese unity in an otherwise culturally diverse territory, British imperialism was at the same time always a limited instrument, constrained as it was by Egypt's legal claims to the territory.     

Peculiarities of sedimentation conditions in the oxbow lakes of Dubysa River (Lithuania)

Abundant wood remains and buried trees have been found in the western part of Lithuania near Zakeli?kiai and Lyduv?nai on Dubysa River (a tributary of Nemunas River) where deposits are rich in organic remnants and buried soils. In Zakeli?kiai and Skiru?iai sections of Dubysa River oxbow sediments were investigated by various methods (dendrochronological, carbonate, granulometric, pollen and mollusc fauna analysis). In addition, these sections were dated using the radiocarbon method. Samples were collected from deposits of Dubysa River outcrops. The studied oxbow lakes have existed for more than 5 thousand years (from ca. 4300 BC to 1000 AD). During this period organic rich deposits with trees and branches were formed in the oxbow lake. This indicates that at the end of Atlantic, during Subboreal and in the early Subatlantic periods there was a forest growing that contained mainly oaks which were falling down into an oxbow lake and later were covered by sandy and silty deposits. The granulometry of alluvial deposits, as well as the mixture of medium-grained sand and silt show different stages of Dubysa River palaeochannel formation: riverbed and oxbow lakes. Three climate warming cycles were revealed according to carbonate analysis data in all investigated sections. The rheophile thermophilous Holocene age molluscs species Bithynia tentaculata L., Unio cf. crassus Philipsson, Pisidium amnicum (Müller), Theodoxus fluviatilis (Linnaeus) have been found. The pollen composition and sequences have been divided into five local pollen assemblage zones (LPAZ) and described according to pollen spectra in each zone. In this way it is possible restore palaeoclimatic coherent evolution, trends and cyclical change.     

The sun in Sámi mythology

The topic of this paper is the position of the sun, Biejvve, in the Sámi religion. The main source of our knowledge about Sámi religion is the accounts of the missionaries and priests from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, who measured the Sámi's beliefs by the standards of classical Greek/Roman religion. Consequently, Biejwe was seen as one of the major celestial gods. Many have continued to follow this line of thinking. There is, however, another context in which Biejwe should be viewed. In almost all circumpolar societies, there exists/existed the concept of female goddesses or ‘mothers’ who regulate fertility and protect the family, especially women during pregnancy and children. Sáráhkká, the Sámi goddess of the hearth, is one of these goddesses. Her realm is the fire in the middle of the tent, at the center of people's lives. Consequently, she intercedes in everyday life; she cares for the family and the upholding of social values. Biejvve is also part of this complex. She is the burning fire in the sky, the annually recurring force which in springtime makes the hillsides turn green again and ensures there is food for the reindeer. She protects the reindeer calves during spring and sees to it that women get milk from the animals during summer. Unlike Såråhkkå, she does not intervene directly in people's lives and doesn not have the same elaborate cult, but she does carry the same life‐giving force.     

Roland Barthes's Soirées de Paris : An alternative view of Parisian night life

This article concerns Roland Barthes's posthumously published Soirées de Paris , a text comprising a series of diary entries dating from the period shortly before the author's death. The article discusses the critical reception of this work in terms of two extreme positions; the first is that the publication of this text is an immoral act of voyeurism, whilst the second is that this text reveals the 'true' homosexual Barthes who was for so long repressed. The article does not concur with either of these views, but argues instead that Barthes's Soirées de Paris does not break radically with his previously published works, but rather develops and continues many of the main themes of his earlier writings, in particular the autobiographical preoccupations to which he had recently turned.     

Cultural Changes in Poland's Tatra Mountains

The Corals of Rocky Podhale inhabit the foothills of the Tatra Mountains which lie along the southern fringes of Poland. This ethnic sub-group has its own dialect, typical occupations, characteristic folk songs, dances, attire and architecture. Profound changes in its cultural development, which started in the mid-19th century, are still evident and continue to take place. In this study, these processes are analyzed in time and within the specific physical environment in which they are occurring.