Hereditary emblems: Material culture in the context of social change

Emblematic artifacts, which signify personal or social identity, are potentially valuable sources of information about social organization. To date, however, there has been little comparative study of the social contexts that give rise to use of different kinds of emblems, nor of the ways in which the social significance of emblematic artifacts may change over time. This paper is specifically concerned with the emergence and changing use of hereditary emblems in stratified societies. The histories of lineage devices in western Europe and Japan exhibit a number of similarities which suggest that, in complex societies, hereditary emblems are likely to appear in the presence of unstable systems of social rank. Once introduced, such emblems may acquire additional, nonhereditary, significance without undergoing noticeable iconographic change. The cases examined here suggest a series of general propositions about evolutionary relationships between hereditary emblem use and socioeconomic factors. Although we currently lack a well-developed methodology for identifying hereditary emblems archaeologically, it is clear that the key to their identification lies not in stylistic analysis, but rather in their contexts of use and patterns of association with other items of material culture. Hypotheses derived from consideration of the evolution of lineage emblems in western Europe and Japan are applied to the interpretation of shield decorations of the Archaic and Classical periods in Attic Greece.     

Do faunal remains reflect socioeconomic status? An ethnoarchaeological study among Central African farmers in the northern Congo Basin

Zooarchaeological analyses often draw inferences on socioeconomic status from the composition of bone assemblages associated with houses and other structures in residential sites. In this paper, we test how well faunal assemblages reflect socioeconomic differences among contemporary farmer households in two rural villages in the Central African Republic. Independent measures of wealth are tallied and ranked for six households in each village, including complete inventories of the types and numbers of material goods and the sizes of residential structures and agricultural fields. These data are compared against the associated food bones collected from household trash middens and activity areas, including skeletal abundances, large mammal body part representation, and taxonomic diversity. In most instances larger and more taxonomically diverse faunal assemblages are associated with houses of means and the faunas do, in fact, reflect differences in socioeconomic status. However, faunal “wealth” may be linked to factors unrelated to social or economic inequalities, notably the presence of active hunters. Our analyses suggest that small animals provide useful and important data in assessing socioeconomic means, and comparative studies of wealth in archaeological contexts should not be based on bones alone.     

Micro-spaces: church porches in pre-modern England

The ‘spatial turn’ in some recent historical and historical geographical writing has been theoretically invigorating. The concern with the representation of space – the discursive emphasis – has collided with ideas about the social production of space. Do these notions have to be dichotomous? Indeed, should we restrict ourselves to one or the other? This examination of a micro-space – the porch, predominantly the south porch, of English pre-modern parish churches – attempts to interpret the range of meanings and actions which were accorded to and took place within this small, but significant, space. In dissecting a considerable, if disparate, amount of empirical material, it acknowledges the complexities, even contingencies, of space. It suggests not a return to Kantian notions of space as container, but the varying influences of impositions of the representation of space and of social action on the production of space, without privileging either. Whilst recognizing that both acted upon and within space, we should allow for the differences and diversity within them.     

Tertiary megafossil flora of Maslin Bay,South Australia: a preliminary report

The Maslin Bay flora of South Australia is of lower Middle Eocene age and contains diverse, well preserved angiosperm assemblages. It has yielded 2700 specimens belonging to approximately 200 leaf taxa.

Physiognomic analysis (sensu Webb, 1959; Wolfe 1970) indicates greatest similarity to extant Simple Mesophyll Vine Forest and Complex Notophyll Vine Forest found currently in Queensland.

Preliminary taxonomic studies have confirmed the presence of taxa closely resembling Podocarpus (Podocarpaceae), Agathis (Araucariaceae), Fatsia (Araliaceae) and Banksia (Proteaceae). Microfloral analysis of the deposit confirms the presence of the latter three families, but suggests far greater occurrence of Proteaceae than the number of leaf specimens of this family indicates. Nothofagus pollen is the dominant type, although leaves of this genus are absent from collections. Based on sedimentation, physiognomy and systematic studies of leaves and fungi (Lange, 1969) it is concluded that the Maslin Bay region supported tropical to subtropical rain forest during the lower Middle Eocene.     

The Taphonomy of Resource Intensification: Zooarchaeological Implications of Resource Scarcity Among Bofi and Aka Forest Foragers

Zooarchaeological analyses often rely on bone fragmentation, cut marks, and other taphonomic indicators to bolster interpretations of resource intensification that are based on observed changes in prey types and frequencies. While these taphonomic indicators are assumed to be good proxy measures of processing effort, this assumption is based on inadequate actualistic data and analysts often conflate one or more taphonomic indicators as manifestations of the same process. In this paper, we present zooarchaeological data from two villages occupied by Central African forest foragers with very different foraging efficiencies. These data provide the first case where known disparities in diet breadth and foraging efficiency are matched with prey assemblages and taphonomic attributes. Observational and quantitative data show differences between the villages in diet breadth and access to high-ranked prey, but specific taphonomic indicators such as cut mark distribution and intensity do not match predictions generated from models of resource intensification. We propose that linking different taphonomic processes to resource scarcity and intensification can provide powerful adjunctive information. However, because different processing outcomes may be associated with different kinds of resource intensification in response to different kinds of scarcity, we need to strengthen the validity of purported taphonomic indicators with more rigorous independent studies.