Late Holocene economic specialisation through aquatic resource exploitation at Kobadi in the Méma,Mali

Following the last humid phase of the Late Holocene, human groups left the Saharan latitudes of northern Mali at around 2500 cal. years BC to settle further south. The Kobadi population was among the first Neolithic human groups to enter the Niger Inland Delta in central Mali. People adapted to their new environment by intensifying one of their former subsistence practices, namely fishing. The rich and diversified ichthyofauna exploited was dominated by large Nile perches and a variety of catfish taxa. It testifies to relatively stable hydrological conditions: a fluvial lake which was probably linked permanently to the main Niger River. Fish were caught with harpoons and probably also with diverse fishing devices such as nets, baskets and fences. Preparation processes prior to cooking cannot be determined, but fish were probably cooked on hot coals or stones, the left‐overs of the meals being discarded randomly at the site. Intense exploitation of the aquatic environment near Kobadi provided an abundant, secure and predictable source of protein. Besides fish and riparian mammals, reptiles such as turtles, monitors and crocodile were hunted. Domestic cattle provided milk and/or meat. These animals were either raised at the site or obtained by means of exchange with pastoral groups roaming the hinterlands. From the 2^nd millennium BC, the focus on aquatic resources at Kobadi, mostly through the intensification of fish exploitation, may demonstrate the beginning of economic specialisation in the Niger Inland Delta. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Women,skills and divisions of labour in the Scottish electronics industry

This paper describes the skill and gender structure of the Scottish electronics industry. Scottish electronics had proportionally fewer high‐skill employees and more female employees than British electronics. Female electronics workers in Scotland experienced greater occupational segregation than did females in Britain. Across the various electronics subsectors, the level of skills and the degree of feminization varied widely. Scottish electronics subsectors were not segregated into overlapping skill and gender divisions of labour. With few exceptions, increasing relative feminization of Scottish electronics subsectors was related to employment expansion; decreasing relative feminization to employment decline.     

Single Working-class Women and the City in Java and Vietnam

Through investigation into the lives of single migrant women who work as department store salesgirls in Surabaya and Ho Chi Minh City, this paper suggests that while commonalities exist with regard to their controlled use of beauty in the workplace, their lack of time and disposable income, and the temporary nature of their right to live in their respective cities as migrants, there are significant differences between them. These differences run contrary to conventional stereotypes of the “outspoken” Javanese woman and the “servile” Vietnamese woman, which in turn are based on stereotypes of the bilateral Southeast Asian kinship tradition and the patrilineal East Asian kinship tradition respectively. Taking into account the forces for and against conservative gender relations in both societies, this paper suggests that it is the Vietnamese working-class woman who exercises more power over how she lives in the city.     

Bronze Age Barrows: Factors Influencing Their Survival and Destruction

This paper analyses the influences on the survival of Bronze Age round barrows in two regions of southern Britain, the Upper Thames Valley and the Stonehenge Environs. It is clear that persistent arable farming in the medieval period had a highly destructive effect on these burial mounds. This can be seen despite later agricultural activity. Other factors such as the type of barrows can also be important factors in the survival and destruction of these burial mounds. Nevertheless, when analysing the distribution of these Bronze Age monuments, later historic land use must be considered as well as the contemporary prehistoric landscape.     

Between crime and colony: interrogating (im)mobilities aboard the convict ship

Recent literature in carceral geography has attended to the importance of mobilities in interrogating the experience and control of spaces of imprisonment, detention and confinement. Scholars have explored the paradoxical nature of incarcerated experience as individuals oscillate between moments of fixity and motion as they are transported to/from carceral environments. This paper draws upon the convict ship – an example yet to gain attention within these emerging discussions – which is both an exemplar of this paradox and a lens through which to complicate understandings of carceral (im)mobilities. The ship is a space of macro-movement from point A to B, whilst simultaneously a site of apparent confinement for those aboard who are unable to move beyond its physical parameters. Yet, we contend that all manner of mobilities permeate the internal space of the ship. Accordingly, we challenge the binary thinking that separates moments of fixity from motion and explore the constituent parts that shape movement. In paying attention to movements in motion on the ship, we argue that studies of carceral mobility must attend to both methods of moving in the space between points A and B; as micro, embodied and intimate (im)mobilities are also played out within large-scale regimes of movement.