Navigating global socialism: Tanzanian students in and beyond East Germany

This article investigates tensions and dynamics in global socialism through a focus on Tanzanian students in East Germany between the late 1950s and 1990. Disciplinary techniques partially known from Tanzania and everyday strategies of survival explain why most students complied with official requirements, but did not necessarily agree with East German ideological tenets. Additionally, throughout the decades, mobility across the Iron Curtain remained an important strategy to further own interests. The article concludes that an analytical framework spanning several decades and paying attention to dynamics in the country of origin sheds new light on agency and mobility among ‘East’, ‘West’, and ‘South’ during the Cold War.     

A new approach to tracking connections between the Indus Valley and Mesopotamia: initial results of strontium isotope analyses from Harappa and Ur

Exchange and interaction between early state-level societies in Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley during the 3rd millennium BC has been documented for some time. The study of this interaction has been dominated by the analysis of artifacts such as carnelian beads and marine shell, along with limited textual evidence. With the aid of strontium, carbon, and oxygen isotopes, it is now possible to develop more direct means for determining the presence of non-local people in both regions. This preliminary study of tooth enamel from individuals buried at Harappa and at the Royal Cemetery of Ur, indicates that it should be feasible to identify Harappans in Mesopotamia. It is also possible to examine the mobility of individuals from communities within the greater Indus Valley region.     

The Study of Archaeological Floors: Methodological Proposal for the Analysis of Anthropogenic Residues by Spot Tests,ICP-OES,and GC-MS

The identification of chemical activity residues on archaeological surfaces requires the analysis of large numbers of samples, which can be costly and time consuming. Researchers wishing to apply sediment chemistry often are confronted with a dilemma of which technique to use and how to accommodate sediment chemistry into their budget. We propose an approach to the identification of chemical activity residues in which semiquantitative spot tests, which are cheap, quick, and easy to apply, are employed as an initial phase of analysis in order to leverage the results of more time-consuming and costly instrumental techniques. Three examples that pair spot tests with gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy and inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry analysis show that spot tests successfully identify areas of interest. This approach can save both time and research funds.     

The person for the period?

Sir Robert Menzies, The Measure of the Years, Cassell Australia Ltd., 1970, pp. 300, $6.95. Kylie Tennant, Evatt: Politics and Justice, Angus and Robertson Ltd., Sydney, 1970, pp. 418, $8.95.     

Book Reviews

Roman Sexualities. Edited by Judith P. Hallett and Marilyn B. Skinner (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1997) x + 348 pp. $55.00 cloth, $19.95 paper.

The Collected Works of Eric Voegelin, Vol. 19: History of Political Ideas—Hellenism, Rome, and Early Christianity. Edited with an introduction by Athanasios Moulakis (Columbia and London: University of Missouri Press, 1997) 281 pp. $34.95 cloth.

Managing Knowledge: Experts, Agencies and Organizations. By Steven Albert and Keith Bradley (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997) xi + 215 pp. £40.00 cloth, £14.95 paper.

Projecting Illusion: Film Spectatorship and the Impression of Reality. By Richard Allen (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995). x + 176 pp. $54.95 cloth, $16.95 paper.

Chaucer in Context: Society, Allegory and Gender. By S. H. Rigby. Manchester Medieval Studies (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1996) xii + 205 pp. £35.00 cloth, £12.99 paper.

Jung's Seminar on Nietzsche's Zarathustra. By C.G. Jung, ed. James L. Jarrett, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998) xxviii + 393 pp. $17.95, £10.95 paper.

Love Between Women: Early Christian Responses to Female Homoeroticism. By Bernadette J. Brooten (Chicago & London: The University of Chicago Press, 1996) xxii + 412pp. £34.95, $27.95 cloth.

Political Communication Today. By Duncan Watts (Manchester: Manchester University Press) x + 228 pp. £40.00 cloth, £10.99 paper.

A Primer on German Enlightenment. By Sabine Roehr (Columbia and London: University of Missouri Press, 1995) xi + 282 pp. £36.95 cloth.

Sainthood in the Later Middle Ages. By André Vauchez. Trans. Jean Birrell (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998) xxvii + 645 pp. £65.00, $95.00 cloth.     

Evaluation of bone strontium as a measure of seafood consumption

The recognition that bone strontium/calcium ratios reflect dietary levels of strontium and that seawater has a high strontium content led some archaeologists to infer that seafood consumption produces high Sr/Ca ratios in bone. Analyses of seawater and of marine organisms reveal, however, a marine trophic effect comparable to the trophic effect seen in terrestrial food chains. This marine trophic effect reduces the Sr/Ca levels in seafood such that marine dietary resources have Sr/Ca levels comparable to those of terrestrial resources. Thus, bone Sr/Ca ratios can not differentiate consumption of marine and terrestrial resources. Also, Sr/Ca of bones from archaeological sites where seafood was an important component of diet were found to be within the range of entirely terrestrial diets. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.