Taking rumours seriously: Why organ thieves matter to malaria control

This article documents what happened when a group of researchers tried to gain consent to carry out a survey for a malaria‐related research project in the Sabah region of Malaysia at the end of 2015. Within weeks, rumours had begun to spread on social media that the team were fake and using the guise of a research project to steal organs. The refusal to participate is often considered only relevant to researchers in so far as it has implications for the project itself. However, non‐participation in research is a valuable area of inquiry in its own right, precisely because of what it reveals about what lies beyond the research project. Rumours that contribute to non‐participation are indicative of the murky space of social relationships and connections that surround health. In fact, as is illustrated in this case study, rumours do not just reveal or represent this interconnected world, they also incite affect. It is within this space that bodies are put at risk of a number of health issues ranging from malaria to organ theft and it is thus here where researchers should focus more attention.     

Experimental governance: the role of municipalities in urban living labs

Innovations in urban governance such as Urban Living Labs (ULL) are expected to accelerate the transition towards more sustainable and climate-resilient cities. This article reviews different ULL across Europe and explores the role and potential capacity of municipalities in the development of and/or facilitation of ULL as a form of experimental governance. It focuses on the role of the public sector in the multi-actor collaborations that often characterize experimental governance. The article draws on literature on cities in sustainability, climate and environmental governance, and bridges this with political science literature on governance. Based on institutional theory that emphasizes roles, identities, and perceived and actual acting space, three functional roles for the municipality are singled out – promoter, enabler and partner – in a framework with a set of indicators that are used to analyse 50 case studies of ULL (http://www.urbanlivinglabs.net). The aim is to advance knowledge on how municipalities can facilitate urban sustainability through experimental governance.     

FISHERS OF THE CORDED WARE CULTURE IN THE EASTERN BALTIC

Between 2800 and 2400 cal BC pastoralists from Central Europe migrated into the eastern Baltic paving the way for the Corded Ware Culture (CWC), and a new type of economy, animal husbandry. Traditionally the CWC people were viewed as highly mobile due to the lack of substantial traces of dwellings and material culture at settlement sites; they were reliant on an economy based on animal husbandry as demonstrated by zooarchaeological and stable isotopic evidence. However, this paradigm is beginning to shift. Here, we present new AMS radiocarbon (¹⁴C) measurements, pollen and macrobotanical data from sediment samples and a portable fish screen, as well as technological, molecular and isotopic data obtained from ceramic vessels from three CWC sites in the eastern Baltic. Overall, our results indicate a de-Neolithisation process undergone by some CWC groups, particularly in lacustrine and coastal ecotones, and a shift to hunting, gathering and fishing.     

The reception of Gall’s organology in early-nineteenth-century Vilnius

Much has been written about the development and reception of Franz Joseph Gall’s (1758–1828) ideas in Western Europe. There has been little coverage, however, of how his Schädellehre or organology was received in Eastern Europe. With this in mind, we examined the transmission and acceptance/rejection of Gall’s doctrine in Vilnius (now Lithuania). We shall focus on what two prominent professors at Vilnius University felt about organology. The first of these men was Andrew Sniadecki (1768–1838), who published an article on Gall’s system in the journal Dziennik Wileński in 1805. The second is his contemporary, Joseph Frank (1771–1842), who wrote about the doctrine in his memoirs and published an article on phrenology in the journal Bibliotheca Italiana in 1839. Both Frank and Sniadecki had previously worked in Vienna’s hospitals, where they became acquainted with Gall and his system, but they formed different opinions. Sniadecki explained the doctrine not only to students and doctors but also to the general public in Vilnius, believing the new science had merit. Frank, in contrast, attempted to prove the futility of cranioscopy. Briefer mention will be made of the assessments of Johann Peter Frank (1745–1821) and Ludwig Heinrich Bojanus (1776–1827), two other physicians who overlapped Gall in Vienna and went to Vilnius afterward. Additionally, we shall bring up how a rich collection of human skulls was used for teaching purposes at Vilnius University, and how students were encouraged to mark the organs on crania using Gall’s system. Though organology in Vilnius, as in many other places, was always controversial, it was taught at the university, accepted by many medical professionals, and discussed by an inquisitive public.     

Imagined homeland: landscape painting in Palestine in the 1920s*

Abstract. This essay examines the proposition that landscape representations both reflect and endorse national ideology. By studying in detail selected landscape paintings by Jewish artists in pre‐State Israel some of the assumptions linking landscape and nationalism will be revisited. In particular, I shall challenge received notions in Israeli art historiography that interpret the numerous landscape paintings of the 1920s as directly expressing the identification with Zionism – the Jewish national movement. Analysis of the subject repertoire reveals that artists usually ignored images of the Zionist settlement in Palestine. They preferred instead to depict oriental countryside or ancient cities in an emblematic idealistic manner supported by stylistic borrowings from contemporary French painting. The country in these paintings is more an idea than a reality. Yet they evoke neither the biblical past nor a Zionist futuristic vision, but rather an oriental Arcadia of an unspecified time.     

Radiocarbon and dendrochronological dating of Sub-fossil oaks from Smarhoń riverine sediments

Sub-fossil oaks from Smarhoń in Belarus have been investigated and tree-ring chronologies were assembled. According to radiocarbon dating, the oldest oak grew from 5782–5612 cal BC and the youngest from 1575–1747 cal AD. Radiocarbon and dendrochronological dating of 97 samples, four single series, 10 mean curves (containing 2–9 series) and three chronologies (10–25 series) were constructed. The longest chronology (No. 16), covering 549 years, was absolutely dated against various oak chronologies of Polish/Baltic origin to AD 778–1326. Germination and dying-off phases were assessed from the three best replicated chronologies. A spectral analysis of the chronologies provided cycles of variable length, on average of 25 years.     

FROM BRONZE AGE HILLFORT TO CAPITAL CITY NEW RADIOCARBON DATES AND THE FIRST ARCHAEOBOTANICAL INVESTIGATION AT THE VILNIUS CASTLE HILL

The ‘Castle Hill’ represents the core territory of Vilnius, around which gravitated urban development, eventually culminating in the foundation of the capital of Lithuania. However, we know very little about the earliest occupation on Castle Hill - how it developed over time, and what the activities were of the people that inhabited the site. While the study of plant remains can provide a crucial insight into human staple foods, agricultural activities and the palaeoenvironment, previous attempts of archaeobotanical investigations of such an important cultural heritage site was cut short due to the outbreak of World War II. Here is presented the first archaeobotanical analyses from the territory of Castle Hill together with new radiocarbon dates stretching from the 8^th century BC until the 14^th century AD. The primary archaeobotanical analyses in combination with published datasets from adjacent regions around Castle Hill show that the diversification of crops and the introduction of various crop rotation practises during the 8-13^th centuries AD. Here, for the first time, attention is drawn to the agricultural strategies in medieval Vilnius that likely played a pivotal role in the formation and development of the city.