Toward critical population anthropology

Handwerker, W. Penn, ed. Births and Power: Social Change and the Politics of Reproduction. Boulder: Westview Press, 1990. 227 pp. including chapter references. $27.50 paper.

Landers, John, and Vernon Reynolds, ed. Fertility and Resources. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990. vii + 199 pp. including chapter references and index. $59.50 cloth.     

Talented amateurs in psychological anthropology

Thomas R. Williams, ed. Psychological Anthropology. The Hague and London: Mouton Publishers, 1975. A volume in the World Anthropology Series, Sol Tax, general editor. Distributed in North America by Aldine Publishing Co. 655 pp. $27.50.     

Five views of Kypseli

Susannah Hoffman, Richard Cowan and Paul Aratow. Kypseli: Women and Men Apart—A Divided Reality. 16mm film, color, sound, 44 minutes. Purchase S425. Rental $40. Distributed by the University Extension Media Center, University of California, Berkeley.     

How to Handle a Liberated Woman

Abstract

In this article, the author presents a strategy for designing relational databases with the program FileMaker Pro (FileMaker) to study the histories of individuals and organizations. The approach facilitates efficiency in inputting data and flexibility for constructing statistical analyses from the raw data. The key feature of the strategy is to define the basic unit of observation in the database in terms of an agent, an event, and a date. Given that programs such as FileMaker can easily sort data by agent and date, once one structures the data correctly, he or she can construct well-ordered event histories for agents, even if the researcher enters the data in an unordered fashion. By using events that happened to an agent at a particular time as the basic unit of observation, one maintains maximum flexibility to do statistical analysis that aggregates basic data in different ways. This article illustrates the power of the approach by outlining ways to analyze changes in geographic distances between two events marking the life histories of chemists.     

Application of 3-dimensional microscopy and micro-CT scanning to the analysis of Magdalenian portable art on bone and antler

The appearance of portable artistic objects during the Upper Palaeolithic is characterised by a combination of a wide choice of techniques, use of different materials and a diversity of iconographic expression, with many objects made of bone and antler decorated with animal representations. Taphonomic and experimental approaches have been systematically applied in an effort to understand the technical and artistic procedures followed. In this study, we applied a new combination of 3-dimensional microscopy (focus variation optical microscope) and micro-CT scanning to the analysis of two Magdalenian engraved specimens: a reindeer antler from the site of Neschers (France), engraved with the partial image of a horse in left profile, and a horse metatarsal from Courbet Cave, Penne (France), engraved with a horse head also in left profile. Results of the analysis suggest that both the Neschers and Courbet Cave engravings had been prepared before being carved. The overall contours of the horse body/head were incised first, while anatomical features were added afterwards. In the Neschers case, the incision resulted from the repeated scratching of a previously made incision in order to enlarge the engraving, possibly reflecting the engraver's aesthetic sense. The combination of the techniques used in this study is applicable to fragile or unique archaeological specimens. Micro-CT scanning, in particular, provides non-invasive means for identifying engravings that are obscured by encrusted sediment. The application of these techniques can potentially open new avenues for the authentication, technical and gestural recognition and interpretation of incised forms and artistic creativity.     

Paleoenvironmental catastrophies on the Peruvian coast revealed in lagoon sediment cores from Pachacamac

Paleoenvironmental reconstruction combining data from diatom, pollen, macrophytic, and archaeological analyses had not been attempted previously for coastal Peru. We analyzed two radiocarbon-dated sediment cores extracted from the “sacred” Urpi Kocha Lagoon at the pre-Hispanic religious center of Pachacamac (ca. AD 350-1533), near Lima, to characterize the paleoenvironment of the site. The data reveal an environmental history characterized by alternating periods of severe drought and catastrophic flood. Recurrent pulses with distinctive sediment, diatom, pollen, and macrophytic characteristics reflecting variations in water depth, substrate, turbidity and salinity, usually contain a thick basal sandy storm deposit overlain by thin organic accumulations of peat, gyttja, and snails. The most intense of these disturbance pulses, when correlated with pollen, plant macrofossils, radiocarbon dates, and regional proxy data, provide local evidence of four major floods associated with sustained, catastrophic El Niño events, tsunamis and/or severe storms in the Andean highlands over the last 2000 years.