Two dwarves from Sweden: A unique case

In the same burial ground in use from the late eleventh to thirteenth century one male and one female dwarf were buried, only 1 m from each other. They were buried in the same way and with the same kind of grave goods as the others buried around them. The medical and osteological investigations of the skeletons show that the two individuals suffered from a very rare congenital malformation that made them dwarves: spondylo-epiphyseal dysplasia congenita with mild coxa vara. A search of the palaeopathological literature has not revealed any other such cases. Because this disease is extremely rare, it is very likely that the two dwarves were closely related.     

Narrative strategies in a nondemocratic setting: Moscow’s urban policy debates

The Narrative Policy Framework (NPF) explains the role of narratives in policy processes. The NPF was developed for democratic contexts and has not been systematically applied in a nondemocratic setting. This study fills this gap with an empirical analysis of narrative strategies used by governmental and oppositional actors in urban policy debates in Moscow. Results show how governmental actors consistently use angel shifts, contain issues, and avoid using causal mechanisms, while actors opposing governmental policy use devil shifts, expand issues, and use intentional causal mechanisms. The findings suggest that narrative strategies differ depending on whether policy actors seek to promote policy reforms or draw attention to problems. We argue that policy actors’ objectives are a well-suited predictor for narrative strategies in both democratic and nondemocratic contexts.     

Producing North and South: a political geography of hydro development in Québec

Since the 1970s, the tapping of James Bay's hydroelectric potential has been synonymous with the tapping of divergent national imaginaries for native and non-native people in Québec. Exploitation of natural resources in the region has activated different narratives of political identity for each community. I explore this evolving political context by examining how, for each group, water has emerged simultaneously as a physical entity possessing economic value and a social artefact supporting the consolidation of national boundaries. I do so by analysing three phases of changing relationships around resource management, namely: hydroelectric development on the La Grande river in the 1970s; the Cree opposition to Great Whale in the 1990s; and the recent agreement concerning a new relationship between the two parties. In each of these phases, nature has been both the symbolic and material tie that binds different national identities and materialises their boundaries. While these are not boundaries in the traditional geopolitical understanding of the term, the forging of an equitable framework of development in the region depends on the recognition of nature as a historical and political formation that answers to different sets of national preoccupations.     

Du tourisme généalogique dans l'Irlande contemporaine

The aim of this article is to explore the causes of the recent and surprising expansion of heritage tourism in Ireland, working with contemporary anthropological data. It is a fact that numerous descendants of Irish migrants have been returning ‘home’ recently to discover the land where their forebears originally came from. Of particular interest here are specific types of return to the homeland, such as the gathering of clans. We would like to point out here that such collective, ritualized activities have a twofold nature: in addition to their role in the forging of identity, they provide a means for the governments of Ireland and Northern Ireland to develop touristic activities over the entire island, thus diversifying economic resources.     

Geological importance of luminescence dates in Oman and the Emirates: An overview

In the Wahiba Sands of eastern Oman, luminescence dating of sands enables us to relate wind activity to climatic variations and the monsoon cycle. These changes resulted from Polar glacial/interglacial cyclicity and changes in global sea levels and wind strengths. Luminescence dates show that development of the Sands began over 230 ka ago when the sand-driving winds were the locally arid, northward-blowing SW Monsoon.     

Gegen die Resignation Kenianische Jugendclubs gehen in die Offensive

Abstrakt Obdachlosigkeit, Kriminalit?t, Hunger, Krankheiten, verunreinigtes Wasser und Seuchen sind nur einige Alltagsprobleme fast einer Milliarde Slumbewohner weltweit. Unter ihnen sind zahlreiche Kinder und Jugendliche, die in den Slumgebieten scheinbar ohne Zukunftsperspektiven aufwachsen. Viele haben ihre Familie durch AIDS verloren oder sind selbst infiziert. Ohne Arbeit oder Ausbildungsplatz verbringen sie ihren Alltag auf den Stra?en der Slums. Die extremen Lebensbedingungen erh?hen das gesellschaftliche Konfliktpotenzial erheblich; nicht selten ist der Einstieg der Kinder und Jugendlichen in die Kriminalit?t die Folge. Auch in Kenia ist die Lage auf den ersten Blick trostlos: Der Staat zieht sich aus seiner Verantwortung mehr und mehr zurück, Betroffene sind sich selbst überlassen. Zu ergründen, wie die Jugendlichen selbst L?sungen für ihre Probleme suchen und welche Perspektiven sich ihnen bieten, war Ziel einer Studie von 15 Studierenden der Universit?t Trier im Jahr 2004 unter der Leitung von Dr. Johannes Michael Nebe. Im Rahmen einer mehrw?chigen Feldarbeit in verschiedenen Slumgebieten Nairobis – n?mlich in Kibera, Dandora, Korogocho, Kariobangi und Mathare – konnten die Studierenden ihr literaturbezogenes Hintergrundwissen über die Probleme in Slumgebieten praktisch vertiefen. Unterstützt von der Deutschen Stiftung für Weltbev?lkerung trafen sie vor Ort auf selbst organisierte Jugendclubs und „Community Based Organisation“ (CBOs). Letztere werden von der lokalen Bev?lkerung einer Gemeinde selbst gegründet, organisieren und verwalten sich selbst. Sie zielen dabei auf die Befriedigung von speziellen Bedürfnissen der Bev?lkerung ab. Ihre Arbeit ist nicht an Profit, sondern an der Entwicklung der Gemeinde orientiert (UN-Habitat 2004; WELTBANK 2004). Die ersten CBOs wurden Anfang der 90er Jahre gegründet.