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.     

Cultural capitals and cosmopolitanism in eighteenth-century Italy: the historiography and Italy on the Grand Tour

This article reviews the most recent body of literature in the English language that revisits cultural developments of eighteenth-century Italy in light of the internationalism of the peninsula in that period. In particular, it seeks to show how a consideration of the rhetorical strategy of the Grand Tour has both generated a discrete field of study as well as informed the work of a broad range of cultural historians seeking to identify and account for those innovations unique to Italy's eighteenth century.     

Surviving Justice: America's Wrongfully Convicted and Exonerated

On Independence Day 2008, the Associated Press distributed astory about a Texas man released from prison after serving fifteenyears. He was the nineteenth Dallas County man since 2001 shownto be innocent by DNA evidence ("DNA Clears Texan," Iowa CityPress-Citizen, July 4, 2008: 7A). This was the highest numberof any county in the nation. Wrongful conviction is, however,not limited to Dallas County, TX, nor is exoneration alwaysthe result of DNA tests. Just five days earlier, The Des MoinesRegister had published a front-page story about a man spendinghis twelfth year in an Iowa prison. He had been convicted inDes Moines's Polk County of a 1996 murder, but the many redflags in the case finally warranted a hearing and a possiblereversal of     

Economic development,marine protected areas and gendered access to fishing resources in a Polynesian lagoon

This study examines the potential socio-spatial impacts of a new series of marine protected areas (MPAs) on fishers in Moorea, French Polynesia. The establishment of the MPAs is contextualized within recent and historical processes of economic development and theories of women in development and gender, culture and development. Seventy adults from three neighborhoods in Moorea were interviewed. Analysis of the data provides new information about the characteristics of fishing in Moorea. Unlike most fishing cultures and communities throughout the Pacific Islands, men and women in Moorea have similar, as opposed to segregated, spatial patterns of fishing activities and fishing methods. The study also points out the potential negative impacts of the MPAs on both men and women, particularly younger and lower-income fishers.     

‘That's not a good idea,mom': Negotiating children's subjectivity while constructing ‘home’ as a research site

Framing this methodological article are two main themes on which we elaborate: (1) constructing ‘home’ as a site for doing research with children, and (2) facilitating children's autonomy and subjectivity in the accessing and recruiting phases, thus providing them opportunities to buy into the research process. Drawing on joint experiences from two closely related research projects on a housing development in Norway, we bring to the fore and explore both the role of gatekeepers and sponsors and ongoing negotiations within the triangular parent–child–researcher relation.     

Explaining Supreme Court Policymaking in Civil Rights: The Influence of the Solicitor General, 1953–2002

What factors explain Supreme Court policymaking in civil rights cases? Despite the importance of this question of law and policy, few empirical studies have explored the problem on the area of racial and ethnic discrimination. This study seeks to fill this gap by assessing the importance of the solicitor general, the federal government's representative before the Supreme Court, as a litigant and in the filings of amicus curiae briefs. The findings confirm that the solicitor general's presence in civil rights cases does matter when explaining whether the Supreme Court reaches a liberal or conservative outcome. This research demonstrates the significance of executive‐judicial interaction in explaining Supreme Court policymaking in civil rights cases.