The Danes on the Gold Coast: culture change and the European presence

Denmark was one of several European nations which vied for West African trade between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. The Danes established more than thirty forts, trading lodges and plantations on the Gold Coast, and they played an important role in the development of African-European relations in the region. Traces of Danish outposts and the results of recent excavations at the Daccubie plantation are briefly surveyed. The available data illustrate the circumscribed nature of African-European interaction on the Gold Coast, providing insight into the context in which culture change occurred within African populations. The archaeological record of European expansion in Africa and elsewhere is used to illustrate the varying nature of European contact.

---

Résumé Le Danemark était l'une des nombreuses nations européennes qui rivalisaient pour le commerce avec l'Afrique occidentale entre le dix-septième et le dix-neuvième siècles. Les Danois établirent plus de trente forts, comptoirs commerciaux et plantations sur la Côte de l'Or, et jouèrent un rôle important dans le développement des relations afro-européennes dans la région. Des traces de postes coloniaux danois et les résultats d'excavations récentes à la plantation de Daccubie sont brièvement passés en revue. Les données existantes illustrent le caractère limité de l'interaction afro-européenne sur la Côte de l'Or, donnant des indications sur le contexte dans lequel un changement culturel se produisit parmi les populations africaines. Les témoignages archéologiques de l'expansion européenne en Afrique et ailleurs servent à illustrer la nature changeante du contact européen.

     

Australia,the security council and the Iranian crisis of 1946: Liberal internationalism in practice

In the early months of 1946 Dr H.V. Evatt made a concerted effort to shape the newly formed Security Council as a security tribunal. He wanted the Security Council to be governed by the principles of the United Nations Charter, to adopt regular procedures, to have an investigatory function and to make determinations on the facts of each case, not on the basis of power politics. Evatt attempted to implement his policy during the Iranian crisis despite the opposition of all the great powers, including the United Kingdom. This episode reveals the commitment to liberal internationalism that marked Australian foreign policy during this period and demonstrates both the possibilities and limits of an ‘idealist’ foreign policy.     

Effect of mollusc eating on human bone strontium levels

Empirical aspects of the movement of strontium through the food chain suggest that the level of bone strontium can be used as an indicator of the percentage of meat in human diet. In general, skeletal remains from agricultural peoples are expected to have high bone strontium levels relative to hunter-gatherers from the same geographical region because plants contain relatively higher amounts of strontium when compared with animal products. The results of the study described in this paper, however, indicate that the inclusion of molluscs as a component of the diet may produce the opposite of the expected strontium values. Burials from an Archaic (c. 2500 BC) hunting-gathering population excavated from Lu^o25, an archaeological site in northern Alabama, USA, exhibit a mean bone strontium level ( atomic absorption; neutron activation) that is higher than the mean level from an agricultural Mississippian (c. AD 1400) population ( atomic absorption; neutron activation) that was buried at the same site. The samples were analysed by two techniques (atomic absorption spectrometry and neutron activation analysis) and the results compared favourably; therefore, the results can be accepted as valid rather than being due to technique error. We propose that the ingestion of molluscs, whose meat is known to contain large amounts of strontium, has produced this reversal from expected results.     

Financial policies in the Papal States, 1790s–1848: a comparative study of Napoleonic Europe

This article discusses the financial policies of the Papal States from the late eighteenth to the mid-nineteenth century in relation to the rest of Europe, and especially Italy. Its crucial starting point is the Napoleonic economic reforms, which had important and often lasting effects throughout its former empire. French reliance on debt reduction and heavy though equitable taxation improved the financial conditions of most European lands even as they convulsed from the protracted wars. The economic austerity prior to 1814 forced post-Napoleonic Europe to make decisions on the degree of continuity on these two financial fronts. Political instability beginning in the 1820s for some, and the early 1830s and late 1840s for the rest, upset the rather tenuous financial position that most lands found themselves in. For the Papal States, the Napoleonic period improved its financial position to the detriment of ecclesiastical institutions. The period also revealed the inherent flaws in its financial system, necessitating a decentralized approach to the restoration, relying on individual (or institutional) initiatives and large foreign loans, in lieu of overarching policies. By the 1850s, a further lack of financial control induced the renewal of Peter’s Pence.     

From the interpersonal to the internet: social service digitisation and the implications for vulnerable individuals and communities

In Australia, e-government is continuously re-defining service boundaries. While this may be good in the case of transactional interactions, for example the online submission of tax returns, it is less clear that interpersonal services, such as working closely with the long-term unemployed, are best delivered digitally. We consider the impact of social services digitisation on vulnerable communities drawing on an analysis of remote Aboriginal communities. Digital uptake affords great opportunities, but it also carries risks. Some communities have no digital infrastructure and in certain cases traditional face-to-face services have been curtailed, leaving those not online with reduced assistance. We find that concerns about the ‘digital divide’ are well founded. Problems generated by e-government flow across boundaries and appear left to the third sector to resolve with the state playing an even more diminished role in the lives of disadvantaged citizens.