Variation in human bone bioerosion during the Late Eneolithic/Bronze Age in Moravia (Czech Republic): A novel approach to BSE-SEM image quality and quantity assessment

Human bones from Late Eneolithic graves and Bronze Age settlement pits in Moravia (Czech Republic) were studied to reconstruct their post-mortem histories based on the distribution of their microbial destruction. Backscattered electrons in a scanning electron microscope (BSE-SEM) were used for visual assessment of bioerosion. Visual data from the histological analysis were transformed into quantitative data using the Waikato Environment for Knowledge Analysis (WEKA) toolkit. The results show that the presence of bioerosion is different between the two groups of samples. The bones from settlement pits display extensive bioerosion whereas the bones from graves display no or arrested bioerosion. The absence of bioerosion in graves is most probably linked with tomb burials of Corded Ware Culture. Given the tombs are frequently not preserved archaeologically, the state of bone bioerosion may serve as an indicator of their existence.     

Seizing the Means of Circulation: Choke Points and Logistical Resistance in Coco Solo,Panama

Recent studies of logistics have embraced the “choke point” thesis: the notion that a strategically positioned group of workers or insurgents can exercise outsize power by disrupting the circulation of goods through the supply chain. This article examines this proposition through the case of Coco Solo, Panama, an informal community situated at the epicentre of Panama’s transit economy but persistently excluded from its benefits. Between 2001 and 2014, as part of a protracted struggle over housing, Coco Solo residents repeatedly blockaded key ports and logistics facilities. Despite their location at a critical node in global capitalist commodity circuits, the community’s actions met with limited success. I draw on the case to refine existing theorisations of logistical resistance, emphasising the contingent factors that influence the effectiveness of such tactics, the diverse contexts in which they are mobilised, and the value of going beyond workerist and insurrectionist accounts of supply chain disruption.     

From Monad to man

From Monad to Man: The Concept of Progress in Evolutionary Biology. By Michael Ruse (Harvard University Press, 1997), x + 628 pp., $49.95 cloth.     

The Pre-Settlement Vegatation of the Western and Central Wimmera Plains of Victoria,Australia

Historical records indicate that the fertile soils of the western and central Wimmera Plains of Victoria, Australia formerly supported grassy woodlands on rises and flats, and grasslands on shallow depressions and clay plains. Soil type and micro-relief appear to have been the major factors that determined the distribution of these communities. Burning of the woodlands by Aborigines may have contributed to their open grassy nature. The few ungrazed remnants of Buloke (Allocasuarina luehmannii) woodland support a suite of species that are absent from or uncommon in other Buloke woodland remnants in the region. This work demonstrates that in districts where little intact native vegetation remains, investigation of the distribution and floristic composition of the pre-settlement vegetation can provide useful information for the maintenance and restoration of remnant vegetation.     

THE LONG-RUN ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF FEDERAL,STATE, AND LOCAL FISCAL POLICIES IN METROPOLITAN AREAS*

ABSTRACT. This paper uses new estimates of metropolitan factor demand and output supply functions to study how federal, state, and local fiscal policies affect metropolitan economies. We illustrate our work with findings for ten metropolitan areas in five states for changes in state corporate income taxes, local property taxes, the federal corporate income tax, an investment tax credit, interest rates, public capital stocks, output prices, and tax and regulatory policies affecting gross wages. It is clear from these simulations that a policy that is nominally the same everywhere will have repercussions that vary widely across regions and cities.     

Walter Benjamin: Quel matérialisme? Quelle histoire?

Cet article est consacré à l'étude de quelques uns des aspects de la philosophie de l'histoire de Walter Benjamin qui, aujourd'hui, suscitent le plus d'intérêt. En pratique, il analyse la notion de progrès, le rôle joué par l'écoulement du temps et l'interruption messianique. Il insiste aussi sur la critique du marxisme vulgaire entreprise par W. Benjamin et met en évidence ses apports les plus personnels ; enfin, il attire l'attention sur le risque encouru par les historiens qui orientent leur travail vers le futur et se montrent aveugles en ce qui concerne le passé.     

La Mesure en psychologie de binet à Thurstone, 1900–1930

The French psychologist Alfred Binet is at the origin of the development of the mental test intended for diagnosing the intellectual level of children. Initially conceived as clinical tests their importation to the United States during the 1910's has considerably altered their use, significance and interpretation. Turned into political tools by eugenicists and hereditarists and used in large-scale selection operations, the tests have changed the psychologists' conception of intelligence: initially conceived as multifacted and qualitative, intelligence had become a single quantifiable entity. Within this context, the American psychologist Louis Leon Thurstone criticized the lack of exactness of the statistical tools used in the intelligence scale. Once objectivized, his method became a general law intended to account for all mental processes.     

William Penn et l’Abbé de Saint-Pierre: Le chaînon manquant

The two most famous peace projects published at the time of Louis XIV are William Penn’sEssay towards the present and future peace of Europe and Castel de Saint-Pierre’sProjet pour rendre la paix perpétuelle en Europe, which came out in English in 1693, and that of the abbé de Saint-Pierre, which was published in its completed form in several volumes dating from 1713 to 1716. A French translation of Penn’s book was issued in 1697 at the latest and was privately distributed. Our claim is that Saint-Pierre was in some way involved in that translation and that he was indebted to Penn for many of his ideas.