Garu Kime: A Late Borno Fired-Brick Site at Monguno,NE Nigeria

Abstract  

This paper primarily presents analyses from geophysical data and archaeological remains collected at one of a few known sites to the west of Lake Chad associated with fired-brick structures. It reports on previous fieldwork at the location, considers its alleged relationship with the early history of the Borno kingdom and then turns to present new data that provide fresh insights into the physical appearance, dating, material remains, economy and environment of the site. A brief discussion of the historical purpose of the fired-brick structures and the site itself concludes the paper.     

Ancient Humped Cattle in Africa: A View from the Chad Basin

The origins of ancient and modern African cattle are still a matter of much debate among researchers. Part of the dispute involves the question of the appearance in Africa, from the second millennium BC onwards, of cattle carrying a distinguishing morphological feature present in most of the modern sub-Saharan breeds: The hump. This paper addresses the issue of the origins of the African humped cattle. After reviewing the current hypothesis on their origins, the status and significance of old and new archaeological and osteological evidence from the Chad Basin are presented and critically discussed. Mainly based on the cultural context of the archaeological figurative evidence available in the remaining continent, a case for the foreign ancestry of the ancient African humped cattle is made, and a perspective for future research in the topic is provided.     

Schooling in the University Town: The Racial Capitalist Foundations of Education

This article focuses on how educational institutions are crucial sites for understanding how racial capitalism and anti-Black violence are reproduced. Centring Chapel Hill, home of the University of North Carolina (UNC), and its neighbouring town of Carrboro as a university town built by racial capitalist and anti-Black practices, I analyse how the university functions as a social reproductive force that structures the town and its local public education system. Building on my ethnographic research, Black studies literature, and Black geographic thought, I argue that the university partakes in the political, economic, and ideological restructuring of a community that enables hierarchical differences to be produced in schools in terms of how success is rooted with liberal notions of the individual and proximity to whiteness. Paying attention to these relationships challenges us to think about the need for the total eradication of oppression in all forms to truly have liberated educational spaces.     

Graham Connah: The So Pots of Central Africa: Memories of the Past

African Archaeological Review -     

“Reprende […] onde o merece o vício”: A sátira na poesia do Classicismo e do Maneirismo

If, deluded by general literary history, we only value what is ethical and responsible in classical Portuguese satire, forgetting that it can also contain individual arbitrariness aimed at the destruction of an object, we will miss the moments when, as in medieval satire, the factor of constitution seems to be the ruthless and immoral personalization of criticism of persons, institutions, or entities. The aesthetics of moderation ends up promoting a subtly saturated and concrete language that seems to pursue the annulment of the other rather than a corrective social function. In Mannerism we find the most aesthetically elaborate examples of satire that challenges destiny or God in relation to the evils that fall upon an impotent but insubstantial self before such sensitive questions of metaphysical morality, a satire whose classic style gives it an aesthetic dignity and textual model without exception. In this article, we will see the different paths of classic and Mannerist satire, using the works of poets such as Sá de Miranda, António Ferreira, Pêro de Andrade Caminha, André Falcão de Resende, and Fernão Rodrigues Lobo Soropita.     

Beyond Adornment: Cowry Use as Potter's Tool in the First Impressed Wares of the Southwestern Mediterranean Coast (Northern Morocco)

The use of seashells for the decoration of pottery from the sixth millennium cal BC is well known in the western Mediterranean, with the emergence of so-called Cardial Pottery. Actually, the most discussed issue up until now has been the use of bivalves for impressed decoration. However, the experimental approach followed in the present study provides for the first time clear evidence for the utilization of a very specific group of shells as tools for the decoration of some of the early pottery productions in northwest Africa. In particular, we propose the use of cowry, a gastropod family with a well-known ideological and symbolic role in many human cultures around the world. Also, it is suggested that cowry was used for making impressed wares on the opposite European shore. The implications for reconstruction of Neolithic diffusion along both the European and African coasts of the Mediterranean are of great significance.     

On the Performance of the Subtour Elimination Constraints Approach for the p‐Regions Problem: A Computational Study

The p‐regions is a mixed integer programming (MIP) model for the exhaustive clustering of a set of n geographic areas into p spatially contiguous regions while minimizing measures of intraregional heterogeneity. This is an NP‐hard problem that requires a constant research of strategies to increase the size of instances that can be solved using exact optimization techniques. In this article, we explore the benefits of an iterative process that begins by solving the relaxed version of the p‐regions that removes the constraints that guarantee the spatial contiguity of the regions. Then, additional constraints are incorporated iteratively to solve spatial discontinuities in the regions. In particular we explore the relationship between the level of spatial autocorrelation of the aggregation variable and the benefits obtained from this iterative process. The results show that high levels of spatial autocorrelation reduce computational times because the spatial patterns tend to create spatially contiguous regions. However, we found that the greatest benefits are obtained in two situations: (1) when ; and (2) when the parameter p is close to the number of clusters in the spatial pattern of the aggregation variable.     

Living with everyday environmental risks: giving a voice to young people in the design of community-based risk communication programs in the city of San Luis Potosí, México

Risk communication programs (RCPs) can contribute to the improvement of community health in marginalized settlements by improving health-related information and practices. Yet, there is a need to include young people's concerns in the design and implementation of RCPs. This study analyses young peoples’ risk perceptions in the city of San Luis Potosí, Mexico, using visual methods such as drawings and photography. Research was conducted with 74 students from two deprived urban neighborhoods. Results indicate that the use of visual techniques enabled them to identify environmental health risks such as unhealthy sedentary habits and the exposure to hazardous items. We conclude that visual methods may help young people to critically reflect on everyday elements in their environment that affect their well-being. By giving them a voice in a reflexive way, visual methods may engage young people as key multipliers in the awareness raising process, and promote their sense of everyday agency.     

Socioeconomic impacts of Russian invasion of Ukraine: A multiregional assessment for Europe

History shows that wars can be enormously disruptive of economic activity, especially international trade, national income, and global economic welfare. This article analyzes the impact on the European regions the Russian invasion of Ukraine using the largest and most updated multiregional input-output model for Europe. Two shocks, trade and inflation, and four alternative scenarios are simulated. The scenarios are considered regarding the number of countries applying a trade embargo, the exemption of oil and gas, and the potential trade diversions with third countries such as China. We obtained a significant fall in GDP (−1.7%), 3.7 m lost jobs and 3% raise over the prewar inflation rate. For trade shock, large indirect effects are obtained, indicating the high relevance of the sectors and countries exposed to the war and the sanctions. The republics of the former Soviet Union, as well as the satellite countries of the former communism, face the harshest adverse impacts. This work shows the importance of breaking Russia's colonial economic ties to the countries in Eastern Europe.