Adaptation of heritage architecture in Al Asmakh,Doha: insights into an urban environment of the Gulf

SUMMARY: This paper examines the continuing legacy and occupation of Doha’s vernacular architecture of the early oil period, drawing on techniques from architecture, contemporary archaeology and anthropology. Historical and contemporary inhabitation is examined, as well as the experiences of today’s resident migrant communities. The ongoing significance of Al Asmakh’s vernacular architecture within Qatar’s heritage discourse is considered. Particular attention is given to adaptations undertaken by today’s multinational residents, and the role they play as custodians of Qatar’s architectural heritage. This is a companion piece to the study of vernacular architecture by Eddisford and Carter (2017).     

Rethinking ‘Bellarmine’ contexts in 17th-century England

SUMMARY: Archaeologists have identified and examined ‘Bellarmine’ vessels for many years. Their accumulated research has proven instrumental in providing abundant information about the vessels’ dates, styles and distribution. Seldom, however, have archaeologists considered the deeper significance or the major terms used for the vessels. This paper investigates the meanings of various terms and argues for a greater understanding of the relationships between the bearded-man images on the vessels and two eras in which the terms appear — the past and the present. The concept of conceptual frames assists with the interpretation.     

The Survival of Words: Revolution and Class Struggle

How did Kirchnerismo, initially a motley coalition of progressive Peronists and born-again Menemistas and Duhaldistas trying to scrape together some form of governability from the 2001 default, turn into one of the ‘pink tide’ governments most virulently hated by the Right? Why did long-forgotten concepts and terminologies from the epic past of revolutionary struggle suddenly resurface in the context of what, at least from the viewpoint of the autonomist Left, was hardly more than a mildly redistributive administration of scarcity, aided by the post-millennial commodity boom? In this intervention, historian Javier Trímboli urges us to take seriously some of the discursive anachronisms that flourished during Néstor and Cristina Kirchner’s periods in office (2003–2015), which, he suggests, rather than merely a form of discursive cover for clientelist politics, may have been symptomatic of the way in which some of the foundational fault-lines of modern Argentine society continue to shape political identities, styles and forms of struggle in the present.     

Book reviews

The Essential Codex Mendoza. By FRANCES F. BERDAN and PATRICIA RIEFF ANA WALT. Berkeley and Los Angeles: The University of California Press, 1997. Pp. xiii, 268, 148.

Cruzados, mártires y beatos: Emplazamientos del cuerpo colonial. MARIO CESAREO. West Lafayette: Purdue University Press, 1995. Pp. xi, 201.

Dineros de ventura: La varia fortuna de la emigración a Indias (siglos XVI‐XVII). By CARLOS ALBERTO GONZALEZ SANCHEZ. Seville: Universidad de Sevilla, 1995. Pp. 277.

La administración como un fenómeno social. La justicia penal de la Ciudad de Quito (1650–1750). By TAMAR HERZOG. Madrid: Centro de Estudios Constitucionales, 1995. Pp. 352.

The Countryside in Colonial Latin America. Edited by LOUISA SCHELL HOBERMAN and SUSAN MIGDEN SOCOLOW. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1996. Pp. 295.

Peasants, Politics, and the Formation of Mexico's National State. By PETER F. GUARDINO. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996. Pp. viii, 319.

Poder terrateniente, relaciones de producción y orden colonial. By EDUARDO AZCUY AMEGHINO et al. Buenos Aires: Fernando García Cambeiro, 1996. Pp. 259.

Storms Brewed in Other Men's World's: The Confrontation of Indians, Spanish, and French in the Southwest, 1540–1795. By ELIZABETH A. H. JOHN. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, [1975] 1996. Pp. 805.

The World Upside Down: Cross‐Cultural Contact and Conflict in Sixteenth‐Century Peru. By SUSAN ELIZABETH RAMIREZ. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996. Pp. 234.

Architecture and Power in the Ancient Andes: The Archaeology of Public Buildings. By JERRY D. MOORE. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996. Pp. xiii, 256.

Las crónicas y los Andes. By FRANKLIN PEASE G. Y. Mexico: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1995. Pp. 632.

The War with Spain in 1898. By DAVID F. TRASK. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, [1981] 1996. Pp. xiv, 654.

The Village and the Outside World in Golden Age Castile. Mobility and Migration in Everyday Rural Life. By DAVID E. VASSBERG: Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996. Pp. xvii, 253.     

Network Structures in Regional Innovation Systems

While interactive learning and inter-organizational relations are the fundamental building blocks in regional innovation system (RIS) theory, the framework is rarely related to investigations of regional knowledge network structures, because in RIS literature relational structures and interaction networks are discussed in a rather fuzzy and generic manner, with the “network term” often being used rather metaphorically. This paper contributes to the literature by discussing theoretical arguments about interactions and knowledge exchange relations in the RIS literature from the perspective of social network analysis. More precise, it links network-theoretical concepts and insights to the well-known classification of RIS types by Cooke [(2004) Introduction: Regional innovation systems – an evolutionary approach, in: P. Cooke, M. Heidenreich & H.-J. Braczyk (Eds) Regional Innovation Systems: The Role of Governances in a Globalized World, 2nd ed., pp. 1–18 (London: UCL Press)]. We thereby exemplarily show how the RIS literature and the literature on regional knowledge networks can benefit from considering insights of the respective other.     

Paul Broca’s search for Basque skulls: The full story

Paul Broca surmised that the short and broad—brachycephalic—skulls of the earliest European settlers had become longer and narrower—dolichocephalic—in modern populations due to the blending of different races. Swedish anatomist Anders Retzius had two brachycephalic skulls said to be from contemporary Basque individuals, a claim suited to test Broca’s hypothesis. Broca worked with fellow anatomist and surgeon Pedro González Velasco, the founding father of Spanish anthropology, to gather a large number of Basque skulls. In its time, this was the most fascinating collection owned by the Anthropological Society of Paris. This article explains how Broca and Velasco were able to gather such a sizeable array of specimens, which they had collected at a location known at first by the code name of “Z.” Although Broca finally concluded that the origin of the Retzius skulls could not be determined, his research was to spark anthropologists’ interest in the language and origins of the Basque people.     

Microanalytical study of copper ores from the Chalcolithic settlement of São Pedro (Portugal): Copper production in the south-western Iberian Peninsula

Copper ores recovered at the third millennium bce settlement of São Pedro, Portugal, were characterized by micro-Raman spectroscopy, micro-energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (micro-EDXRF) and micro-particle-induced X-ray emission spectrometry (micro-PIXE). The collection shows the common presence of secondary copper minerals (malachite, pseudomalachite and libethenite) combined with iron oxyhydroxides (hematite and goethite), while arsenic-rich minerals are absent and, therefore, can be excluded as the source of arsenical copper. Overall, these copper ores suggest a primitive technology involving the exploitation of the superficial zone of ore bodies and reliant on the fortuitous finding of arsenic-rich sources to produce the arsenical copper alloy frequently present among metallic collections of the Iberian Peninsula.