Ghosts of Sorrow,Sin and Crime: Dark Tourism and Convict Heritage in Van Diemen’s Land,Australia

Established as a British imperial penal colony, Van Diemen’s Land received approximately 75,000 convicts before cessation of convict transportation in 1853. A vast network of penal stations and institutions were created to accommodate, employ, administer, and discipline these exiled felons. Popular interpretations of Australia’s convict past highlight dynamics of shame, avoidance and active obliteration that characterized Australia’s relationship to its recent convict past. Yet, closer examination of these colonial institutions suggests a far more ambivalent relationship with this “dark heritage,” evidenced by continuous tourism and visitation to these places of pain and shame from the mid-nineteenth century to the present.     

Can Lithic Attribute Analyses Identify Discrete Reduction Trajectories? A Quantitative Study Using Refitted Lithic Sets

Quantitative, attribute-based analyses of stone tools (lithics) have been frequently used to facilitate large-scale comparative studies, attempt to mitigate problems of assemblage completeness and address interpretations of the co-occurrence of unrelated technological processes. However, a major barrier to the widespread acceptance of such methods has been the lack of quantified experiments that can be externally validated by theoretically distinct approaches in order to guide analysis and confidence in results. Given that quantitative, attribute-based studies now underpin several major interpretations of the archaeological record, the requirement to test the accuracy of such methods has become critical. In this paper, we test the utility of 31 commonly used flake attribute measurements for identifying discrete reduction trajectories through three refitted lithic sets from the Middle Palaeolithic open-air site of Le Pucheuil, in northern France. The experiment had three aims: (1) to determine which, if any, attribute measurements could be used to separate individual refitted sets, (2) to determine whether variability inherent in the assemblage was primarily driven by different reduction trajectories, as represented by the refitted sets, or other factors, and (3) to determine which multivariate tests were most suitable for these analyses. In order to test the sensitivity of the sample, we ran all analyses twice, the first time with all the available lithics pertaining to each refitted set and the second time with randomly generated 75 % subsamples of each set. All results revealed the consistent accuracy of 16 attribute measurements in quadratic and linear discriminant analyses, principal component analyses and dissimilarity matrices. These results therefore provide the first quantified attribute formula for comparative analyses of Levallois reduction methods and a basis from which further experiments testing core and retouch attributes may be conducted.     

Where is Helvellyn? Fuzziness of multi-scale landscape morphometry

The landscape in which people live is made up of many features, which are named and have importance for cultural reasons. Prominent among these are the naming of upland features such as mountains, but mountains are an enigmatic phenomenon which do not bear precise and repeatable definition. They have a vague spatial extent, and recent research has modelled such classes as spatial fuzzy sets. We take a specifically multi-resolution approach to the definition of the fuzzy set membership of morphometric classes of landscape. We explore this idea with respect to the identification of culturally recognized landscape features of the English Lake District. Discussion focuses on peaks and passes, and the results show that the landscape elements identified in the analysis correspond to well-known landmarks included in a place name database for the area, although many more are found in the analysis than are named in the available database. Further analysis shows that a richer interrogation of the landscape can be achieved with Geographical Information Systems when using this method than using standard approaches.     

Occupying the Margins: Labour Integration and Social Exclusion in Artisanal Mining in Tanzania

This article examines the marginal position of artisanal miners in sub‐Saharan Africa, and considers how they are incorporated into mineral sector change in the context of institutional and legal integration. Taking the case of diamond and gold mining in Tanzania, the concept of social exclusion is used to explore the consequences of marginalization on people's access to mineral resources and ability to make a living from artisanal mining. Because existing inequalities and forms of discrimination are ignored by the Tanzanian state, the institutionalization of mineral titles conceals social and power relations that perpetuate highly unequal access to resources. The article highlights the complexity of these processes, and shows that while legal integration can benefit certain wealthier categories of people, who fit into the model of an ‘entrepreneurial small‐scale miner’, for others adverse incorporation contributes to socio‐economic dependence, exploitation and insecurity. For the issue of marginality to be addressed within integration processes, the existence of local forms of organization, institutions and relationships, which underpin inequalities and discrimination, need to be recognized.     

Organic Public Geographies: “Making the Connection”

Abstract: A new field of “public geographies” is taking shape ( Fuller 2008 ) in geography's mainstream journals. While much is “traditional”, with intellectuals disseminating academic research via non‐ academic outlets ( Castree 2006 ; Mitchell 2008 ; Oslender 2007 ), less visible is the “organic” work and its “more involved intellectualizing, pursued through working with area‐based or single‐interest groups, in which the process itself may be the outcome” ( Ward 2006 :499; see Fuller and Askins 2010 ). A number of well‐known projects exist where research has been “done not merely for the people we write about but with them” ( Gregory 2005 :188; see also Cahill 2004 ; Johnston and Pratt 2010 ). However, collaborative writing of academic publications which gives research participants authorial credit is unusual ( mrs kinpainsby 2008 ; although see Sangtin Writers and Nagar 2006 ). This paper is about an organic public geographies project called “Making the connection”. It is written by a diverse collection of (non‐)academic participants who contributed to the project before it had started, as it was undertaken, and/or after it had finished. This is a “messy”, process‐oriented text ( Cook et al. 2007 ) working through the threads (partially) connecting the activities of its main collaborators, including a referee who helped get the paper to publication.     

Resource depression, climate change, and mountain sheep in the eastern Great Basin of western North America

Strontium, oxygen, and carbon stable isotope analysis may be used in conjunction with archaeofaunal data to identify resource depression by demonstrating that prey were obtained from more distant locations. We use fauna from Five Finger Ridge, a Fremont site in central Utah, to demonstrate that relative abundances of mountain sheep (Ovis canadensis) declined during a period of increased summer precipitation. Strontium ratio values from this period indicate that sheep were acquired from different locations than the preceding period. Specimens from this period also show a moderate increase in carbon ratio values, suggesting that mountain sheep were acquired from higher altitudes. Oxygen isotopes do not vary between temporal periods, possibly the result of the countering effects of higher oxygen isotope values associated with increased summer temperatures and lower oxygen isotope values present at higher elevations. Collectively, these data support that there were localized population declines of mountain sheep that may be related to either climatic changes or hunting pressure.     

On the spatial and technological organisation of hafting modifications in the North African Middle Stone Age

Aterian stone tools represent one of the clearest indications of technological regionalisation in the North African Middle Stone Age. Found in association with Homo sapiens skeletal remains and more recently with symbolic material culture, the Aterian is widely thought to reflect modern human identity and cognition. As a lithic industry, the Aterian has been primarily defined by the presence of stemmed or tanged tools, but there has been little quantitative study of the relationship between tangs and other forms of hafting modifications, such as shouldering and basal thinning. Understanding the diversity of these features and their relationships with one another will clarify the organisation and adaptations of North African populations during Marine Isotope Stage 5 (MIS 5, ∼130–70,000 years ago), a critical timespan for modern human dispersal. This paper presents the results of a stepped analysis of fifteen Aterian and other non-Aterian assemblages from the same spatial and temporal bracket in North Africa. Using Correspondence Analyses together with a suite of other statistics, the results indicate that tanging represents a widely applied strategy of hafting a variety of different tools. On the other hand, basal thinning is specifically correlated with lightweight, highly retouched points. The distribution of these features appears to reflect geographical proximity and shared environments, rather than articulating with traditional named industries. This in turn suggests that a continued focus on tangs to differentiate an ‘Aterian’ from other, contemporary North African MSA industries may be obfuscating regional-scale patterns of technological diversity.