First molecular identification of a hafting adhesive in the Late Howiesons Poort at Diepkloof Rock Shelter (Western Cape,South Africa)

The hafting of tools using adhesive is one of the innovative features that characterizes the southern African Middle Stone Age. This technology has mainstream implications but remains insufficiently documented, largely due to unequal organic preservation and non-adapted analytical procedures. A notable exception is provided by the recent results from the site of Sibudu (Lombard, 2006; Wadley et al., 2009).     

Integration and the negotiation of ‘here’ and ‘there’: the case of British Arab activists

Immigrant-receiving societies are increasingly emphasizing the need for immigrants to integrate into mainstream life. In Britain, this trend has manifested itself in ‘social cohesion’ discourses and policies. Discussions about social cohesion have often focused on the residential patterns of immigrant and minority groups in British cities, with the assumption that residential patterns are an indication of social integration. Integration, however, is also a socio-political process by which dominant and subordinate groups negotiate the terms of social membership. We explore the ways in which British Arab activists conceptualize their membership in and responsibilities to their places of settlement; we also consider how they reconcile notions of integration with their connections to their places of origin. Our study participants speak of the need for immigrants to participate actively in their society of settlement, but they reject the idea that integration requires cultural conformity or exclusive loyalty to Britain. Their definition of integration as a dialogue between distinctive but equal groups sharing a given place provides a normative alternative to social cohesion discourses.     

Simultaneous love: an argument on love,modernity and the feminist subject at the beginning of the twentieth century

This article explores an argument on love as it was articulated within the framework of the ‘New Ethics’ sexual reform in Germany at the beginning of the twentieth century. While many commentaries on the alienating impact of modernity projected authenticity onto the ‘non‐modern’ woman and her love, the feminist authors at issue in this article promote ‘modern love’ as a medium of women's participation in modernity. Furthermore, they address the problem of love's temporality and non‐exclusivity. Yet, the engagement with these topics is a tricky one because non‐exclusivity and impermanence are at the same time dismissed as ‘decadent’ ways of loving and attributed to ‘archaic’ Europe and non‐European cultures.     

Archaeology and the Forensic Investigation of Recent Mass Graves: Ethical Issues for a New Practice of Archaeology

The close of World War II marked the advent of international human rights legislation and the prosecution of individuals for human rights crimes, by both nation states and international tribunals. The prosecution at such trials often presents evidence from forensically excavated mass graves. Forensic archaeology is a new and expanding field and as such has yet to establish a uniform code of ethics, standard operating procedures, and transparency. In addition, there are complex and conflicting agendas of mass grave excavation. Mass grave investigation in Iraq since the 2003 American-led invasion is presented as a case in point.

---

Résumé  La fin de la seconde guerre mondiale a marqué l’avènement international de la poursuite judiciaire des individus ayant commis des crimes de guerre et d’une législation des droits de l’homme à la fois de la part des nations et des tribunaux internationaux. La poursuite judiciaire engagée à souvent fourni la preuve de la présence, par excavation, de tombes de masse. L’archéologie des expertises médico-légales est devenue un champ nouveau en pleine expansion, et, en tant que tel, a établi un code éthique généralisé, ainsi que des procédures standard et de transparence. De plus, il existe des agendas complexes et conflictuels de tombes de masse découvertes par excavation. Ceci s’applique à l’Irak depuis 2003 où l’invasion menée par les. américains est sujette à enquête.

---

Resumen  El fin de la Segunda Guerra Mundial marcó la aparición de una legislación internacional de derechos humanos y los juicios contra los acusados de crímenes contra los derechos humanos, tanto por parte de los estados nacionales como los tribunales internacionales. En los procesos de estos juicios a menudo se presentaban pruebas de la existencia de fosas comunes excavadas por forenses. La arqueología forense es una nueva disciplina en crecimiento y por ello, aún no ha establecido un código ético uniforme, procesos de funcionamiento estándar ni transparencia. Asimismo, hay programas complejos y conflictivos de excavación en fosa comunes. La investigación de fosas comunes en Irak desde la invasión del 2003 encabezada por EE.UU. se presenta como un caso paradigmático.

     

Getting It Right, Getting It Wrong: The Soviet Collapse Revisited

Book reviewed in this article:
Michael Cox (ed.), Rethinking the Soviet collapse: Sovietology, the death of communism and the new Russia     

Vers une Europe de la culture ?

Au Conseil de l'Europe et dans la Communauté européenne, les sens de “culture”, “civilisation” et de “identité culturelle” européennes sont a priori difficiles â identifier et évoluent sur la période 1949–93. L'étude vise, en s'aidant d'une méthode de décompte des mots et d'un rapide examen de l'évolution historique et scientifique de “culture” et “civilisation”, á dégager certains de leurs traits particuliers, au‐delà de la confusion traditionnelle entre “culture” et “civilisation” européennes et entre “culture” et “identité culturelle” européennes. “Civilisation européenne” a pris peu á peu une signification supranationale et s'est raréfiée, tandis que “culture européenne” s'est rapidement divisée en “cultures infranationales”. Les institutions montrent aussi leurs tendances plus ou moins favorables á l'unité européenne, par leur propre utilisation des concepts devenus des éléments “test”.     

Critical feminist reflexivity and the politics of whiteness in the ‘field’

Feminist geographic commonsense suggests that power shapes knowledge production, prompting the long-standing reflexive turn. Yet, often such reflexivity fixes racial power and elides more nuanced operations of difference – moves feminist scholars have, in fact, long problematized. To counter this, we revisit Kobayashi's (1994) ‘Coloring the Field’ [‘Coloring the Field: Gender, “Race”, and the Politics of Fieldwork,’ Professional Geographer 46 (1): 73–90]. Twenty years on, and grounded in our fieldwork in South Sudan and Honduras, we highlight how colonial and gender ideologies are interwoven through emotion. Decentering a concern with guilt, we focus on the way whiteness may inspire awe while scholars of color evoke disdain among participants. Conversely, bodies associated with colonizing pasts or presents can prompt suspicion, an emotive reaction to whiteness not always fixed to white bodies. These feelings have significant repercussions for the authority, legitimacy, and access afforded to researchers. Our efforts thus disrupt notions that we, as researchers, always wield power over our participants. Instead we argue that the positioning of ‘subjects of color’ in the global south, racially and in their relationships with us, is historically produced and socioculturally and geographically contingent. Rethinking the field in this way, as a site of messy, affective, and contingent racialized power, demonstrates the insights offered by bringing together feminist postcolonial and emotional geographies.