Tracing the Distribution of Late 16th and Early 17th Century European Copper Artefacts in Southern Québec and Ontario,Canada

To understand the nature of trade/exchange of ‘Basque’ copper kettles and their fragments among Indigenous communities from Québec to Ontario, Canada, we examined 948 copper samples from 75 archaeological sites. We found that 936 samples were sortable into 11 coarse chemical groups: seven biased towards Ontario, three favouring Québec and only one balanced between the two provinces. This pattern may represent kettles and pieces ‘mostly traded’ or ‘mostly kept’ by Indigenous groups within Québec. Chemical group distribution within individual provinces is complex. A tentative chronology of copper chemical groups provides additional insight into the complex trading/exchange patterns among the Indigenous groups of southern Ontario.     

A Research Note on Austronesian Relationship Terminologies With and Without Relative Age Categories

This research note examines the formal patterning of Austronesian relationship terminologies with or without relative age categories. Specifically, the article considers (1) the formal contrast between these patterns, (2) the key variant forms of these patterns, and (3) the distribution of these patterns and their associated variants throughout the Austronesian-speaking world. It offers a succinct examination of a key dimension of Austronesian terminologies and points to the position of eastern Indonesia as an innovative transition zone in the development of Austronesian terminologies.     

Towards a Dynamic theory of Ethno-Religious Conflict

Abstract. The existing body of theory explaining how religion contributes to conflict is inadequate. This is because no existing theory is both sufficiently comprehensive, in that it describes most of the ways in which religion can become involved in conflict, and sufficiently dynamic, in that it takes into account the interrelationships between the various components of the theory. Also, few attempts are made to integrate such a theory into the general literature on conflict, and few such theories are tested, or even testable, in a large-n format (the use of statistical methodology to analyse a large number of cases in order to test theories and look for general trends). A more comprehensive and dynamic theory of religion and conflict is developed here based on the argument that religion has four basic functions in politics, society and conflict: to provide a value-laden belief system; to supply standards and criteria of behaviour based on that belief system; to organise adherents through its institutions; and to legitimate actors, actions and institutions. This theory is then integrated into Gurr's theory of ethnic conflict in a dynamic format that is testable in a large-n format.     

‘I don't think it was such an issue back then’: changing experiences of pregnancy across two generations of women in south-east England

Based upon in-depth interviews with recent mothers and their own mothers in London, England, this article uses a cross-generational perspective to examine the changing experiences/perceptions of pregnancy over the late twentieth and early twenty-first century. Pregnancy is a biological process, but exists within social, economic, political and cultural realms and is both spatially and temporally located. In this article we argue that advances in gender equality, maternity benefits, technological innovation and mass media have meant that pregnancy is now increasingly experienced in the ‘public’ sphere, whereas, in earlier twentieth century Britain at least, it was often relegated to the realm of private or domestic life. However with these changes have come new types of surveillance in the form of scientific ‘advice’, medical technologies and media dissemination of cultural ‘norms’ regarding appropriate dress, lifestyle and behaviour during pregnancy. Based upon the findings of our research we examine these changes from two different perspectives: firstly a Foucauldian notion of surveillance in relation to ‘medical’ advice on diet/lifestyle during pregnancy, and secondly new expectations regarding body image and clothing in the context of the emergence of ‘pregnancy chic’ and the figure of the ‘celebrity mum’.     

The Future of Disability Policy as a Field of Research

Although the opportunities for research in disability policy are increasing, they remain considerably fewer than in adjacent areas, notably in policy for health, social services, and education. This article explores the new salience of research on disability policy, describes why its importance is likely to increase, and then explores some issues that reveal the under development of the field.     

The Norman's Bay Shipwreck,East Sussex,UK: a possible 17th‐century Dutch ship from the Battle of Beachy Head

This report explores a hypothesis that the Norman's Bay shipwreck is the Wapen van Utrecht, a 64‐gun Dutch ship lost during the Battle of Beachy Head in 1690. The shipwreck, found off the Sussex coast, was designated by the Protection of Wrecks Act (1973) in 2006, when it was speculated that the wreck was the English 70‐gun ship Resolution, lost in the Great Storm of 1703. Dendrochronology dates the vessel after the middle of the 17th century AD, however, with timbers from Germany or the Low Countries. Initiatives by the Nautical Archaeology Society to bring the protected wreck to a wide public are also discussed.     

Roovesmore Fort,and Stones Inscribed with Oghams,in the Parish of Aglish,County Cork

The results of excavations carried out in the Roman civil settlement at Heronbridge, two kilometres from the legionary fortress at Chester (Deva), since its discovery in 1929 are summarized and the overall history and character of the site assessed. Evidence from other provinces is deployed to show that the existence of two, nucleated civilian settlements in the immediate vicinity of a legionary fortress was a common, rather than an irregular, occurrence. The possible reasons for this phenomenon of ‘Siedlungsdualität’ are discussed and it is suggested that the more distant settlement, unlike the canabae, lay outside the boundaries of the prata legionis.