Out of the dark but not out of the cage: women's empowerment and gender relations in the Dangme West district of Ghana

In Ghana, strategies to address poverty among rural women have often been linked to women's empowerment programmes with credit as a core component of these. Yet, many programmes focus on the economic benefit to women without necessarily looking at the impact on gender relations at the household level and its implications on women. Using quantitative and qualitative data from the Dangme West district of Ghana, this article shows how poverty reduction programmes with credit components can reduce women's vulnerability to poverty and empower them. But much more needs to be done to complement these efforts. The study shows that women beneficiaries as against women non-beneficiaries have significantly improved their socio-economic status through access to financial and non-financial resources. This has in certain instances improved gender relations at the household level, with women being recognized as earners of income and contributors to household budget. However, some women still regard their spouses as ‘heads’ and require their consent in decisions even in issues that have to do with their own personal lives. Moreover, the improved economic status of women has resulted in a ‘power conflict’, creating confrontation between spouses. The article recommends that, as part of their programmes, assisting organizations and institutions must address ‘power relations’, the basis of gender subordination at the household level, otherwise socio-cultural norms and practices, underpinned by patriarchal structures, will remain ‘cages’ for rural women.     

Barley and identity in the Spanish colonial Audiencia of Quito: Archaeobotany of the 18th century San Blas neighborhood in Riobamba

Archaeological excavation of two late-18th century household middens in the San Blas parish of the colonial city of Riobamba resulted in the recovery of samples of archaeobotanical remains dating to the period before the AD 1797 destruction of the city in an earthquake. These seed remains were dominated by barley (Hordeum vulgare) and quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa). The dominance of these two grains in samples from artisans’ households in this marginal neighborhood suggests that we should question the assumption that imported Old World domesticates were associated with more elite houses during the Spanish colonial period in the Andes.     

The Traditional Boats of Vietnam,an Overview

This paper addresses the material boat culture of Vietnam both in its current context and more specifically through an assessment of how the boats of Vietnam have been studied in the past. It presents a comprehensive summary of past publications describing the construction, use and variety of boats in the region, from the earliest volumes to modern research projects, including the work of the US military. It highlights the rich diversity of construction approaches and boat‐types that are still built and used, and demonstrates the need for further field research to record the fast‐disappearing traditional boats of Vietnam. © 2010 The Authors     

Go East,Young Cadre: Experiments in Inter‐Provincial Training of Party and State Managers in China

This article situates China's local policy experimentation in the broader context of policy experiments in decentralized political systems, through a case study which represents a local state response to China's transition to a market economy. With growing regional and urban–rural inequalities evident after the initial reform period (1978–1994), local party leaders of inland provinces devised strategies for addressing these inequalities and encouraging public–private sector mobility among party officials. County and township‐level leaders pursued local policy experiments in which they selected and sent officials to find private‐sector work in China's booming coastal cities. Initiated in the 1990s and peaking in the 2000s, these policy experiments and inter‐provincial transfers demonstrate the discretion that local officials possess to conduct programmatic/policy experiments in a unitary political system and show how officials resort to extra‐institutional strategies in order to bridge perceived knowledge gaps. The ultimate demise of these programmes illuminates the challenges to extra‐institutional policy innovations in transitioning states.     

Re-examining the chemical evaluation of diagenesis in human bone apatite

Isotopic analysis of human bone is becoming an increasingly important tool for the archaeologist in divining past life-ways. The isotopic ratios within bone are often assumed to be preserved as in life, but diagenetic change can alter the ratios, invalidating the results of isotopic analysis. Diagenesis can be evaluated in a number of ways, but most often spectroscopic techniques are utilised as the most efficient and easiest to understand methods for the archaeologist. Many isotopic studies do not report the possibility of diagenetic change, and if it is reported it has often been quantified using a single method of chemical analysis, FTIR spectroscopy. This study set out to test the value of FTIR analysis using human remains from the prehistoric site of Ban Non Wat, Northeast Thailand, and to compare the results with the non-destructive technique of FT-Raman spectroscopy. The study shows that FTIR spectroscopic analysis gives far less detail on the condition of bone than Raman spectroscopy, which does not merely indicate recrystallisation has occurred, but also shows clearly whether or not collagen is present, allows identification of ionic substitions which have occurred and identification of secondary minerals which have formed. Raman spectroscopy, combined with LA-ICP-MS analysis also revealed that soil composition and groundwater flow are the conditions which most affect diagenesis at Ban Non Wat.     

Women Appear in the Plains

Androcentrism marked archaeology on the American Plains, women excluded from major projects and archaeology focused on lithics supposedly made by men, with sherds used to establish chronologies and regions. In the 1970s, women scholars initiated feminist studies and became more numerous in the profession. On the Canadian Plains, two 1980 books shifted attention to the formation of Métis, which can be seen as contributing to feminist diversity theory. Postcolonialism, incorporating collaboration with First Nations, became important after 2000 and adds to diversity theory as well as pointing the real-world political-economic consequences of traditional archaeological pictures of Plains “prehistory.”