Fishing settlements in the Pskov region in the 16th century (according to archaeological data and written sources)

Numerous written sources report that an extensive system of special fishing villages called isads existed in the Pskov region in the 16th century. These villages were inhabited by professional fishermen and their fishing grounds were strictly delineated. Due to the analysis of scribes books, cartographic material analysis and exploratory excavations in the area, 314 sites were exposed. More than 60% of the fishing sites mentioned in the scribes books were mapped and the location of 20% more was determined by indirect information. Some of the isads which were located are partially studied by prompt or archaeological excavations. During the excavations of beach debris, some fishing gear dated to the late Medieval–Modern time periods were found. The combination of information obtained from the study of lake coastline changes, hydrological regime of waterways and water bodies of the Pskov region, and data on the economy and economics of the whole area under study give impetus to research into a number of problems related to natural environmental characteristics of the Pskov region for the period of study.     

Historic and symbolic violence in the Romani Fuenteovejuna by TNT-El Vacie: Gender,ethnicity, and interculturalism

Abstract

I address here the performance of Lope de Vega’s Fuenteovejuna undertaken by TNT-El Vacie, giving particular consideration to the ways in which Antonio Álamo’s adaptation, Pepa Gamboa’s direction, and the staging of El Vacie, a company composed exclusively of Roma women, constitute a site of resistance as well as a performance of gender, identity, and place. From this vantage point, I wrestle with issues of agency, dialogism, and intercultural communication to make sense of ontological as well as hermeneutic aspects of the performance text: deletions and additions; orality and authority; meta-theatricality and self-reflexivity; acting and becoming. In addition, I bring to bear the fact that the name of the company, El Vacie, bears witness to the impoverished settlement or shantytown where the women reside, which stands within a mere two hundred yards of the theater where the play is performed. The name of the company signals the identification of the actresses with the marginal space in which they live, enriches the text, and further complicates their reading of Fuenteovejuna by adding levels of referentiality and indexicality that redefine boundaries as well as processes of exclusion and inclusion. While this is not the first collaboration between TNT and El Vacie—it was preceded by the successful and award-winning 2009 staging of La Casa de Bernarda Alba—I consider this performance a particularly important contribution to the construction of a historicized cultural politics of identity that makes the Romani community visible by positioning the women of El Vacie center stage as participants, creators, and interpreters of the national cultural patrimony. Through this cultural intervention, certain spaces and markers of the Roma community acquire visibility as they get inserted into a national historical discourse from which they previously had been historically excluded.     

Book reviews

Laszlo Csaba (ed.). Systemic Change and Stabilization in Eastern Europe. Aldershot: Dartmouth, 1991. xi +141 pp. No price given.

Bradley R. Gitz. Armed Forces and Political Power in Eastern Europe. New York: Greenwood Press, 1992. x + 193 pp. No price given.

Leonid Gozman and Alexander Etkind. The Psychology of Post‐Totalitarianism in Russia. Translated by Roger Clarke. London: The Centre for Research into Communist Economies, 1992. 121 pp. £6.50 (paper).

Sten Berglund and Jan Ake Dellenbrant (eds). The New Democracies in Eastern Europe: Party Systems and Political Cleavages. Aldershot: Edward Elgar, 1991. xii + 237 pp. £39.95.

Adam Przeworski. Democracy and the Market: Political and Economic Reforms in Eastern Europe and Latin America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991. viii + 210 pp. $25.00 (paper).

Jyrki Iivonen (ed.). The Changing Soviet Union in the New Europe. Aldershot: Edward Elgar, 1991. ix + 250pp. £35.00.

John McNair and Thomas Poole (eds). Russia and the Fifth Continent. Aspects of Russian‐Australian Relations. St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 1992. xiv+292 pp. $29.95 (paper).

Alan Dupont. Australia's Threat Perceptions: A Search for Security. Canberra Papers on Strategy and Defence No.82. Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University, 1991. 105 pp. $12.00 (paper).

Viberto Selochan. New Directions and New Thinking in Australia‐Southeast Asia Relations. Australia‐Asia Papers No.62. Centre For The Study of Australia‐Asia Relations, Griffith University, Brisbane, 1992. $8.00 (paper).

Michael Nicholson. Formal Theories in International Relations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989. xiii + 254 pp. No price given.

Charles Reynolds. The World of States: An Introduction to Explanation and Theory. Aldershot, Hants.: Edward Elgar, 1992. xi + 236 pp. £38.50 (cloth), £12.95 (paper).

Rebecca Grant and Kathleen Newland (eds). Gender and International Relations. Milton Keynes: Open University Press, 1991. xii +176 pp. $34.95 (paper).

Gisela Kaplan. Contemporary Western European Feminism. London: UCL Press; Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 1992. xxvi + 340 pp. $24.95 (paper).

J.W. De Pauw and G.A. Luz (eds). Winning the Peace: Vie Strategic Implications of Military Civic Action. New York: Praeger, 1992. xvi + 238 pp. $US49.95.

Martin Shaw. Post‐Military Society. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1991. viii + 229 pp. $32.95 (paper).

Ian Bellany. A Basis for Arms Control. Aldershot: Dartmouth, 1991. ix+155 pp. No price given. Serge Sur (ed.). Verification of Current Disarmament and Arms Limitation Agreements: Ways, Means and Practices. Aldershot: Dartmouth, 1991. ix+396 pp. £35.00.

D. Rueschemeyer, E.H. Stephens and J.D. Stephens (eds). Capitalist Development and Democracy. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1992. xi+387 pp. $45.00 (paper).

A.M. Messina, L.R. Fraga, L.A. Rhodebeck and F.D. Wright (eds). Ethnic and Racial Minorities in Advanced Industrial Democracies. New York: Greenwood Press, 1992. xiv + 353 pp. $49.95. Harry Goulbourne. Ethnicity and Nationalism in Post‐Imperial Britain. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991. xiv+271 pp. $110.00.

Yoram Dinstein and Mala Tabory (eds). The Protection of Minorities and Human Rights. Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff, 1992. xii + 537 pp. $US168.00.

John Zametica (ed.). British Officials and British Foreign Policy, 1945–50. Leicester: Leicester University Press, 1990. 256 pp. $29.50.

R.A. Levine (ed.). Transition and Turmoil in the Atlantic Alliance. New York: Crane Russak, 1992. x+285 pp. £18.00 (paper).

Mark Borthwick (with contributions by selected authors). Pacific Century: The Emergence of Modem Pacific‐Asia. Boulder, Co.: Westview Press, 1992. xv+590 pp. SUS54.95 (cloth), $US24.95 (paper).

Robert G. Sutter. East Asia and the Pacific. Challenges for US Policy. Boulder, Co.: Westview Press, 1992. vii + 182 pp. $33.95 (paper).

Toshio Watanabe. Asia: Its Growth and Agony. Honolulu: East‐West Center, Institute for Economic Development and Policy, 1992. xiv+175 pp. $US16.00 (paper).

Wang Jiye and T.H. Hull (eds). Population and Development Planning in China. Sydney. Allen and Unwin, 1991. xx + 311 pp. $24.95 (paper).

Ruth McVey (ed.). Southeast Asian Capitalists. Ithaca, NY: Southeast Asia Program, Cornell University, 1992. 218 pp. No price given.

Heiner Hänggi. ASEAN and the ZOPFAN Concept. Pacific Strategy Paper No.4. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1991. 82 pp. $US9.00 (paper).

Joel S. Kahn and Francis Loh Kok Wah (eds). Fragmented Vision: Culture and Politics in Contemporary Malaysia. Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 1992. vi + 327 pp. $24.95 (paper).

Joan Hardjono (ed.). Indonesia: Resources, Ecology, and Environment. Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1991. xvi + 262 pp. $44.95.

Shannon L. Smith. The Politics of Indonesian Rainforests. Monash University Centre of Southeast Asian Studies, Working Paper No.76, 1992. 59 pp. $6.00.

Amando Doronila. The State, Economic Transformation, and Political Change in the Philippines, 1946–1972. Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1992. xii+199 pp. $37.50.

K.E. Bauzon. Liberalism and the Quest for Islamic Identity in the Philippines. Durham, NC: The Acorn Press, 1991. ix + 219 pp. No price given.

Philippe Regnier. Singapore: City State in South‐East Asia. London: Christopher Hurst, 1991. 301 pp. £27.50.

Dean Forbes, Terence Hull, David Marr and Brian Brogan (eds). Dot Moi: Vietnam's Renovation, Policy and Performance. Political and Social Change Monograph No.14. Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University, 1991. 263 pp. $18.00 (paper).

M.C. Williams. Vietnam at the Crossroads. London: Pinter/Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1992. viii + 104 pp. £22.50 (cloth), £8.95 (paper).

David P. Chandler. A History of Cambodia. Second edition. Boulder, Co.: Westview Press/Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 1992. xvi + 287 pp. $29.95.

Michael Haas. Cambodia, Pol Pot and the United States: The Faustian Pact. New York: Praeger, 1991. xv+ 163 pp. $US37.95.

Helen M. Hintjens and Malyn D.D. Newitt (eds). The Political Economy of Small Tropical Islands: The Importance of Being Small. Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 1992. xxii + 247 pp. £29.50.

Elizabeth Watkins. Jomo's Jailor: Grand Warrior of Kenya. The Life of Leslie Whitehouse. Calais: Mulberry Books, 1992. xv+266 pp. £8.50 (paper).

John Rowland. Two Transitions: Indochina 1952–1955, Malaysia 1969–1972. Australians in Asia Series No.8. Centre for the Study of Australia‐Asia Relations, Griffith University, Brisbane, 1992. 69 pp. $8.00 (paper).

L.A. Crozier. The Golden Land. Australians in Asia Series No.9. Centre for the Study of Australia‐Asia Relations, Griffith University, Brisbane, 1992. 109 pp. $12.00 (paper).     

Raw material economy in Salento (Apulia, Italy): new perspectives on Neanderthal mobility patterns

This paper presents a case study that questions the behavioral model of a “non-modern” provisioning of raw materials by Neanderthals. The Salento is a peninsula in south eastern Italy rich in Mousterian sites and Neanderthal remains. This region is particularly suitable for raw material economy studies, for its peninsular status and the scarceness of good raw materials. Surveys made in 2006 showed the pattern of utilization of different local raw materials (limestone, siliceous limestone) and the absence of good quality raw materials, that are present in archaeological record. A very long distance provisioning is supposed to be at the origin of their presence in Mousterian Salento sites.     

Changing regional systems of innovation in Greece: the impact of regional innovation strategy initiatives in peripheral areas of Europe

In the context of convergence and cohesion between the European regions, the promotion of innovation in regions that are in different phases of development has been a central objective of European regional policy. For this purpose, the European Commission has launched many innovation schemes and many European regions have conducted initiatives of this kind. In this article, based on the implementation of successive European regional innovation projects in three Objective 1 regions in Greece, namely Central Macedonia, Western Macedonia and Thessaly, the trajectory and the changes that have occurred in their system of innovation are examined. At the outset, considering the outcomes of the first phase of the RTP/RIS exercise, the obstacles in forming these regions' dynamic innovation systems are identified. Thereafter, upon the outcomes of the follow-up exercise of RIS+projects, an imminent change in these regions is observed, highlighting the marking of an innovation-oriented policy addressed to create a supporting institutional framework and shaping the regional innovation environment. Based on these observations, it is argued that European regional policy, via these innovation schemes, has significantly contributed to the reinforcement of innovation systems of participating regions.     

Shifting social networks along the Nile: Middle Holocene ceramic assemblages from Sai Island, Sudan

During the middle Holocene, profound changes in environment, economy, and social relations laid the foundations for the emergence of Africa’s earliest polities: the Egyptian Old Kingdom and the Kerma state. Regional shifts in economy and society may be reflected in local changes in patterning of ceramic production and exchange. Analysis of two pottery assemblages from Sai Island, north Sudan, reveals dramatic shifts in the scale of cultural spheres and the nature of cross-cultural interaction between 5000 BC (Khartoum Variant) and 2600 BC (Pre-Kerma). Near-sedentary Khartoum Variant hunter–gatherers at site 8-B-10C participated in a longstanding cultural sphere that extended far into the Sahara, but were beginning to focus more tightly on resources by the Nile. By Pre-Kerma times, Sai occupants familiar with animal husbandry started to use southwest Asian plant domesticates; they began to experiment with large-scale storage facilities and engage in long-distance trade along the Nile, outside of their own cultural boundaries. Beyond a shift in axes for contact from east–west to north–south, these changes signal progressive geographic and temporal compression of cultural entities, amidst accelerating processes of economic innovation and social change that finally culminated in the polities of Egypt and Kerma.     

An improved PCR method for endogenous DNA retrieval in contaminated Neandertal samples based on the use of blocking primers

Neandertal skeletal remains are usually contaminated with modern human DNA derived from handling and washing of the specimens during excavation. Despite the fact that the distinct Neandertal haplotypes allow the design of specific primer pairs, for instance in most of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) hypervariable region 1 (HVR1), the human contaminants can often outnumber the endogenous DNA, thus preventing a successful retrieval of Neandertal sequences. We have developed a novel PCR method, based on the use of blocking primers that preferentially bind to modern human contaminant DNA and block their amplification, and greatly improve the efficiency of Neandertal DNA retrieval. We tested the method in four El Sidrón Neandertal samples (two teeth and two bone fragments) with different contamination levels and taphonomic conditions, and we have been able to significantly increase the Neandertal yield from figures around 25.23% (5–69.6%) up to 90.18% (75.3–100%).