From Sorcery to Laboratory: Pandemics and Yanyuwa Experiences of Viral Vulnerability

The COVID‐19 pandemic has prompted renewed attention among health professionals, Aboriginal community leaders, and social scientists to the need for culturally responsive preventative health measures and strategies. This article, a collaborative effort, involving Yanyuwa families from the remote community of Borroloola and two anthropologists with whom Yanyuwa have long associations, tracks the story of pandemics from the perspective of Aboriginal people in the Gulf region of northern Australia. It specifically orients the discussion of the current predicament of ‘viral vulnerability’ in the wake of COVID‐19, relative to other pandemics, including the Hong Kong flu in 1969 and the Spanish flu decades earlier in 1919. This discussion highlights that culturally nuanced and prescribed responses to illness and threat of illness have a long history for Yanyuwa. Yanyuwa cultural repertoires have assisted in the process of making sense of massive change, in the form of past pandemics and the onset of sickness, the threat of illness with COVID‐19 and the attribution of ‘viral vulnerability’ to this remote Aboriginal community. The aim is to centralise Yanyuwa voices in this story, as an important step in growing understandings of Aboriginal knowledge of pandemics and culturally relevant and controlled health responses and strategies for communal well‐being.     

Rates of dentine mineralization in permanent human teeth

Previous experimental studies have estimated linear rates of dentine formation in modern humans to be close to 4μm day⁻¹. In this study a method similar to that first adopted by Kawasaki, Tanaka and Ishikawa⁵ was used to estimate linear rates of dentine mineralization over a period of 1200 days in both the cusps and cervical regions of several permanent tooth types. All teeth were from the same individual. Rates in the cusps of teeth with the tallest crowns were estimated to be between 5 μm day⁻¹ and 6 μm day⁻¹. This is higher than previous estimates in permanent tooth crowns, although rates in the cusp of a first permanent molar, where cusps were less tall and cuspal dentine therefore less thick, were close to previous estimates of 4 μm day⁻¹. Despite this variation in cuspal rates, mineralization rates were linear in all cusps studied over a long period of time. Rates in the cervical region, either close to the enamel dentine junction or to the cement dentine junction, were estimated to be between 1.3 μm day⁻¹ and 1.5 μm day¹¹, much slower than reported previously. Rates in the mid-portion of the dentine, in both the lateral part of the crown and in the cervical one-third of the root, rose steadily to match rates in the cuspal region, but then slowed towards the pulp chamber. These data extend the findings of previous studies on permanent human dentine. They demonstrate a wide range of mineralization rates in permanent dentine and provide a more secure basis for judging different rates in different locations of different human tooth types.     

Publications briefly noted

SUEHIRO KITAGUCHI (trans. Alastair McLauchlan). An Introduction to the Buraku Issue: Questions and Answers. Richmond, Surrey: Japan Library, 1999. 213 pp. £35.00, hardcover.

WANG LING‐CHI and WANG GUNGWU (eds). The Chinese Diaspora: selected Essays. Two Volumes. Singapore: Times Academic Press, 1998. Vol. 1: xiv, 287 pp. US$39.00, hardcover; Vol. 2: xii, 300 pp. US$39.00, hardcover.

JOHN S. BOWMAN (ed). Columbia Chronologies of Asian History and Culture. New York: Cornell University Press, 2000. US$85.00; £52.50, hardcover.

PHYLLIS L. THOMPSON (ed). Dear Alice: letters Home from American Teachers Learning to Live in China. Berkeley: The Institute of East Asian Studies, 1998. xiv, 337 pp. US$19.95, paper.

PAUL W. LEWIS and BAI BIBO (PIU BO). Hani‐English English‐Hani Dictionary. London: Kegan Paul International, 1996. 837 pp. £95.00, hardcover.

DONALD DENOON, PHILIPPA MEIN‐SMITH with MARIVIC WYNDHAM. A History of Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2000. xviii, 523 pp. US$60.00, hardcover; £16.00, paper.

WANG GUNGWU and JOHN WONG (eds). Hong Kong in China: the Challenges of Transition. Singapore: Times Academic Press, 1999. 324 pp. Tables. No price given, hardcover.

JOHN McCREERY. Japanese Consumer Behavior: from Worker Bees to Wary Shoppers. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press, 2000. 278 pp. Illustrations. £14.99, paper.

ENGELBERT KAEMPFER. Kaempfer's Japan: Tokugawa Culture Observed. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1999. 545 pp. US$64.00, hardcover; US$34.95, paper.

HIROMITSU IWAMOTO. Nanshin: Japanese Settlers in Papua and New Guinea 1890–1949. Canberra: The Journal of Pacific History, 1999. 175 pp.

BARBARA BENNETT PETERSON (editor in chief). Notable Women of China: Shang Dynasty to the Early Twentieth Century. Armonk NY: M. E. Sharpe, 2000. 402 pp. US$74.95, hardcover.

JOSEPH CHENG (ed). Political Participation in Hong Kong: theoretical Issues and Historical Legacy. Hong Kong: City University of Hong Kong Press, 1999. xviii, 321 pp. Tables. US$34.00, paper.

NEIL J. DIAMANT. Revolutionizing the Family: politics, Love, and Divorce in Urban and Rural China 1949–1968. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2000. xviii, 440 pp. US$55.00, hardcover.

DONALD KEENE. Seeds in the Heart: Japanese Literature from Earliest Times to the Late Sixteenth Century. A History of Japanese Literature, Vol. 1. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999. xiii, 1,265 pp. US$32.50, paper.

DONALD KEENE. World within Walls: Japanese Literature of the Pre‐modern Era, 1600–1867. A History of Japanese Literature, Vol. 2. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999. xv, 606 pp. US$25.00, paper.

WM. THEODORE DE BARY and RICHARD LUFRANO (eds). Sources of Chinese Tradition. Second Edition, Vol. II. New York: Columbia University Press, 2000. xviii, 636 pp. US$49.50, hardcover.

RAE YANG. Spider Eaters: a Memoir. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1998. xi, 285 pp. US$16.95, paper.     

Reflections on Le Quebec d'en Haut et le Quebec d'en bas

At the beginning of the 20th century Quebec stretched beyond its current boundaries. Indeed, it was commonplace to speak of Quebec d'en haut (upper) and Quebec d'en bas (lower). A common destiny seemed to disintegrate a third of the way through the century only to be rekindled in recent times.     

Looking for circular structures in post hole distributions: Quantitative analysis of two settlements from bronze age England

A statistical procedure is suggested for the analyses of hypothetical round-house plans among post hole patterns. The data are compared with an analogous random scattering of points and differences are noted. Plausible interpretations are contrasted with chance configurations to determine their strength. Single-link cluster analysis and statistical geometry are used. The emphasis throughout the paper is on data analysis rather than hypothesis testing.     

Eggshell and the archaeological record: new insights into turkey husbandry in the American Southwest

Eggshell in the archaeological record has interpretive potential beyond simple species identification. Structural features of eggshell itself indicate the degree of development of the embryo. Using a scanning electron microscope, a reference collection of modern eggshell characteristics has been produced that can be used for species determination and for the assessment of embryo development of prehistoric eggshell. We apply this technique to a sample of prehistoric eggshell from northwestern New Mexico and conclude that purposeful breeding of captive turkey populations is present during the 12th century AD. These preliminary results suggest a behavioral shift in turkey husbandry, concomitant with the well documented phenomenon of intensified turkey utilization after about AD 1100 in the American Southwest.