Sanitized Modernity: Rural Public Health in Mid-Twentieth Century Khuzestan

Existing histories of public health in Iran often center on elite or urban narratives. This paper shifts the focus to Iran’s villages by examining the twentieth century public health history of rural northern Khuzestan. It argues that Khuzestani villagers desired, rather than resisted, modern medical services. However, vertical decision-making and the prioritization given by public health planners to economic concerns over social well-being led to the uneven distribution of services and failure to fulfill the expectations of Khuzestan’s villagers. This paper uses memoirs, official reports, correspondence, and other records from the Development & Resources Corporation, along with reports from Iran’s Ministry of Education and Ministry of Health, to bring a richer picture of Iranian villagers’ twentieth century history into focus.     

公共交通可达性分析方法进展

公共交通可达性拥有空间属性、时间属性、社会属性和经济属性,它是一种衡量区位价值的综合性指标,不仅可以反映城市空间特征,同时对城市中生活的人的社会经济属性和生活习惯,具有一定的解释力。为了不断适应新形势下的交通发展要求,减少环境负担,早日实现低碳绿色发展,创新公交都市规划与分析方法迫在眉睫。本文对基于个人的、基于效用的、基于基础设施的和基于位置的可达性研究进行了回顾,并归纳了七种公共交通可达性的分析方法,分别为：基于缓冲区的公共交通站点可达性、基于供需模型的公共交通面状可达性、基于网络分析法的公共交通网络可达性、基于成本栅格法的公共交通可达性、基于成本栅格与网络分析的集成法的公共交通可达性、基于高性能图形数据库的公共交通高精度可达性、基于开放地图 API 的公共交通高精度可达性。 以期为我国未来公共交通可达性的分析方法提供指引和借鉴。     

The way we wear makes the difference: residue analysis applied to Mesolithic personal ornaments from Hohlenstein-Stadel (Germany)

Research conducted by Newell et al. (1990) has lead to propose that during the Mesolithic, the Upper Danube region was inhabited by a “Fish Teeth Band”, characterized by the use of carp fish teeth and exogenous fossil shells as ornaments. However, technological data on these personal ornaments drastically lacked and especially for the fish teeth associated to the Mesolithic burial of Hohlenstein-Stadel that remained completely undescribed until now. The aim of this paper is to establish how the carp teeth from Hohlenstein-Stadel were modified and worn before being deposited in the burial. High-resolution microscopic analysis identifies use-wear traces and a red compound adhering to the surface of the teeth. Structural and elemental analysis of the residue combining light and scanning electron microscopy, infrared spectroscopy, and Raman analysis identify a suspension technique that uses an adhesive composed of an organic binder mixed with charcoal and minerals including hematite, dolomite, and quartz. Ethnological inquiry reveals that this system of suspension, commonly used in traditional societies, is for the first time documented, at Hohlenstein-Stadel, in an archaeological context.     

Identification of dermestid pupal chambers on Southern Levant human bones: inference for reconstruction of Middle Bronze Age mortuary practices

Unique bone damage identified on Middle Bronze Age human skeletal material from the Southern Levant provided important information about the processes of modification and the possible funerary practices resulting in such damage. By comparing archaeological remains with recent skeletal material and by using computed tomography (CT) scans and 3D imaging techniques, the damage is interpreted as pupal chambers created by dermestid beetles. Using skeletal remains from two Middle Bronze Age sites, Jericho Tomb E1 and Munhata Tomb 641, we then discuss how the bores and tunnels left by dermestid beetles on human bones might constitute an interpretative key to the funerary practices of Middle Bronze Age collective burials.     

Protection from the British Empire? Central Africa and the Church of Scotland

This article demonstrates that the Church of Scotland did not seek to undermine the Central African Federation from the moment of its foundation in 1953. This misconception derives from many of the church's missionaries in the region who demonstrated open disdain for the Federation throughout its existence. They were upset that it had been imposed by the white settlers of Central Africa and the British government over the objections of the indigenous Africans. The church, however, did not follow its missionaries. Instead, it sought to make the federal scheme work for all concerned. The Reverend George MacLeod, perhaps the most visible church leader of the twentieth century, played an important role in trying to make the Federation function between 1953 and early 1959. It was not until after the declaration of the Nyasaland Emergency in March 1959 that the church passed a deliverance demanding an autonomous, African-run Nyasaland, at the behest of MacLeod's Committee Anent Central Africa. Deliverances are resolutions presented to the commissioners of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. The commissioners listen to the deliverances and then choose to accept, reject, add to, or amend each of them. Deliverances accepted, or passed, by the General Assembly become law. These laws determine how the Church of Scotland operates. This divergence between the Church of Scotland and its missionaries before the Emergency resulted from the Church's sense of historical obligation to protect the indigenous peoples of Nyasaland from the possibly deleterious consequences of rapid decolonisation. Afterwards, the church focused on protecting the Africans from the federal government by setting them free from the British Empire.