A Context for Concealment: The Historical Archaeology of Folk Ritual and Superstition in Australia

Are there traditions of folk ritual practice in Australian historical contexts, and are they observable in the archaeological record? Studies from the US and UK have documented a range of practices suggesting the persistence of British and European traditions of folk magic well into the twentieth century and previous historical work has identified numerous examples of ritual concealments in Australian buildings. In examining over 4,500 Australian historical archaeological sources, however, we found very few examples of possible folk ritual practices. This raises the question of why such practices are not being captured by current archaeological recording methods. As counterpoint, a general model is constructed from US, UK and Australian work that raises intriguing possibilities for the situating of superstitious behavior in Australian historical archaeology, including the contexts in which people might be more prone to practise such behaviors and how they might be materially identifiable.     

Women and Citizenship in Indonesia

Literature on citizenship canvasses three related issues: membership of a political community, the rights and obligations associated with that membership, and participation in the life of that polity. This paper investigates Indonesian women's experience of these aspects of citizenship in the twentieth century. As a plural society, Indonesia needs to accommodate gender differences within its notion of citizenship. Only women can ensure that this accommodation is worked through in an equitable manner.     

Redundancy, Third-Party Government, and Consumer Choice: HIV/AIDS Nonprofit Organizations in New York City

This article addresses two questions: (a)Why were so many new nonprofit organizations in New York City created to “fight AIDS?” and (b) What are some consequences of this phenomenon? Drawing on redundancy theory as a partial explanation, it also considers the role of racial and ethnic politics and the impact of government contracting on the formation and growth of community-based organizations. For clients, the effect has been paradoxical: financial support of a large number of organizations led to a complex and fragmented delivery system offering some clients a range of choices but decreasing access for those less able to navigate a complex system.     

Prehistoric radio‐ulnar synostosis: implications for function

Proximal radio‐ulnar synostosis (RUS) may occur congenitally, either as an isolated condition or as part of a syndrome, or it may occur as a secondary complication of forearm trauma. We provide a key for the differential diagnosis of congenital versus traumatic RUS, and for differentiation between types of congenital RUS. Congenital cases (CRUS) include absence of fracture, radial head abnormalities, radial shaft bowing, and absence of a sigmoid notch, whereas post‐traumatic RUS results from either radial neck fracture or evulsion of the biceps brachii, followed by ossification of the resulting haematoma or of the interosseous (IO) membrane. Congenital cases include those which result from incompetent differentiation of the single mesenchymal mass that gives rise to the radius and ulna (Type I) and those that result from radial head dislocation in utero, resulting usually from humeral or ulnar defects (Type II). Type II CRUS can be differentiated by the presence of radial overgrowth, among other factors. Following these guidelines, we describe and compare the morphology of three congenital cases from North America. Two present bony fusions and one a functional fusion with radial overgrowth. In each case, CRUS significantly limits both supination and pronation. Despite differences among the cases, several morphological accommodations are shared as a result of fixation in the neutral (semi‐pronated) position. These changes include the ventral migration of the IO crests of the ulnae and enlargement of the dorsal tubercles of the radius. Understanding the pattern of accommodations made in the face of compromised function ultimately increases our understanding of the patterns of growth in normal functional regimes. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The use of SEM-EDS,PIXE and EDXRF for obsidian provenance studies in the Near East: a case study from Neolithic Çatalhöyük (central Anatolia)

In this paper we evaluate the relative analytical capabilities of SEM-EDS, PIXE and EDXRF for characterizing archaeologically significant Anatolian obsidians on the basis of their elemental compositions. The study involves 54 geological samples from various sources, together with an archaeological case study involving 100 artifacts from Neolithic Çatalhöyük (central Anatolia). With each technique the artifacts formed two compositional groups that correlated with the East Göllü Da? and Nenezi Da? sources. The non-destructive capabilities of these methods are emphasized (albeit with certain analytical limitations in the case of SEM-EDS), suggesting important new techniques for Near Eastern obsidian provenance studies.     

Private Conflict and Policy Passage: Interest-Group Conflict and State Medical Malpractice Reform

James Madison argued in Federalist 10 that "rival political factions" work against the public good. In contrast to Madison's pessimistic account, I suggest that factional conflict can lead to more representative public policy, and thus further the will of the people. I theorize that elected officials often seek a safe political position—one that corresponds to the preferences of the public at large—during periods of high conflict. I assess this theory in one, salient policy area, medical malpractice. I measure conflict with contributions for state candidates given by (i) the health and insurance industries, which generally support malpractice laws, and (ii) lawyers, who frequently oppose the laws. I find that group conflict matters to policy outcomes. I also find evidence that, under conditions of elevated conflict, adopted policies are more likely to move toward the general ideological preferences of the public at large. These results suggest that group conflict affects both the quantity and character of policy in the American states.