Connecting global health interventions and lived experiences: suspending ‘normality’ at funerals in rural Tanzania

In this paper, we use the funeral space and its liminal nature as a milieu for exploring how a ‘modern’ health intervention, the mosquito bednet, is negotiated by its recipients in relation to its (non)-usage in such spaces. With a focus on sleeping arrangements at funerals and drawing on empirical data from participants living in rural southern Tanzania, we discuss how the bednet is linked to the notion of being unsympathetic to the death. Viewed as a symbol of modernity and a reflection of wealth and individual pride, the bednet becomes physically and symbolically inappropriate in the more sacred, ‘in-between’ site of the funeral. We also uncover how risk perceptions regarding malaria transmission are re-cast in funeral spaces, with socio-cultural practices and health-related behaviours being simultaneously ‘risky’ for individual mourners and reinforcing in terms of group social cohesion. As individual mourners' concerns about malaria risks are suspended, notions of pain and discomfort come to the fore as part of the mourning process and respect for the deceased.     

Bringing the Art Inside: a Preliminary Analysis of Black Linear Rock-art from Limestone Caves in Erromango,Vanuatu

While surveying and recording rock-art on Erromango over two field-seasons in 1996 and 1997, I had the pleasure of working with Vanuatu Cultural Centre (VCC) fieldworkers Jerry Taki and Sophie Nempan Sei. During this time, both Jerry and Sophie constructed a context of ‘meaning’ for the ‘black linear’ pictures that predominate in the rock-art of the island. Their ideas were highly influential in determining the direction of my research. Jerry spoke of the association of rock-art with warfare and women. Sophie identified certain motifs as clan designs, particularly those located in sites close to where she lives, at Happyland village in the south of the island. The aim of this paper is to understand more about the rock-art of Erromango by combining local knowledge and archaeological techniques of rock-art analysis. I focus on the black linear rock-art, describing its temporal placement and context of production. Temporal information is gleaned from patterns of superimposition among particular rock-art techniques and motif forms, as well as from independent archaeological and ethnographic contexts. It is proposed that black linear rock-art belongs to the most recent period of rock-art production on Erromango, likely within the last 400 years. Rock-art production and use is explored through artistic motifs evident on other items of material culture, including objects which are known, from ethnographic records, to be produced by either women or men. I suggest that black linear motifs were at least in part produced by women, perhaps to register their connection to place during periods of displacement. In accordance with Jerry's statements, ethnographic and archaeological evidence indicates that a salient feature of the island's social landscape over the last 400 years was small and large-scale intra- and inter-island wars. The black linear rock-art is interpreted in relation to this unstable social context.     

Liebe Leserin, lieber Leser,

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Pottery politics: Late Classic Maya palace production at Motul de San José, Petén,Guatemala

Archeologists often rely heavily on stone monuments, architecture, settlement patterns, and written texts to reconstruct ancient political systems. In this paper we focus on the role of polychrome pottery as both a reflection of and critical component in the production of power relations. We present rare direct evidence of polychrome pottery production recovered from the Maya site of Motul de San José, the presumed Late Classic (ca. 600–900 AD) capital of the epigraphically-recognized Ik’ polity. Our contextual analysis of production debris and tools complement on-going polychrome vessel style and chemical analyses of Ik’ Style polychrome vessels to suggest that Motul de San José’s royal court was an important center in the manufacture of Ik’ Style polychrome pottery. These elaborate vessels indexed the political history, power, and networks of the Ik’ polity. By combining archeological, iconographic, and epigraphic data of polychrome pottery, we shed light on Motul de San José’s internal political-economic dynamics as well as its macro-political alliances and tensions with other polities.     

Ergosterol (5, 7, 22-ergostatrien-3β-ol) as a potential biomarker for alcohol fermentation in lipid residues from prehistoric pottery

In this paper we explore the potential use of ergosterol (5, 7, 22-ergostatrien-3β-ol) as a possible biomarker for yeast and alcohol fermentation, applying the analytical technique previously used routinely in Swedish archaeology for the analysis of lipid residue in prehistoric pottery. Taking note on the connection between brewing, baking and agriculture the frequency of vessels showing gas chromatography mass spectrometry traces of this compound in lipid residues from a clearly agricultural Bronze Age/Early Iron Age population was compared with the same signal in a clearly non-agricultural Neolithic foragers pottery population. The result shows a small but statistically significant difference between the two populations, indicating a connection between the presence of ergosterol in lipid residues from pottery and agriculture. The results are also discussed in terms of varying cleanliness, degradation, deposition conditions and contamination. Suggestions for future research include the use of a more sensitive analytical protocol in order to improve detection limits and to include materials from clear agricultural Neolithic vessel populations.     

Archaeologies of Cultural Interaction: Wybalenna Settlement and Killalpaninna Mission

This paper compares two contrasting Australian case studies in the archaeology of Indigenous-European interaction: one mission-like in its intent, the Aboriginal Settlement for Tasmanian Aborigines at Wybalenna on Flinders Island in the Bass Strait (1833–47), the other the Lutheran mission at Lake Killalpaninna (1867–1928) investigated by the Central Australia Archaeology Project (CAAP). Each of the two case studies adopted different strategies of investigation. Wybalenna was a small excavation while Killalpaninna was an extensive surface survey. Both studies reveal diversity in the range of responses to a missionizing program, providing evidence of agency in the formation of the archaeological record. They demonstrate the value of the material evidence and the significance of archaeology in contributing to a more sensitive understanding of the interaction process by providing an alternative to textual sources.