Folk biology: A frontier of cognitive anthropology

Brent Berlin, Dennis E. Breedlove, and Peter H. Raven. Principles of Tzeltal Plant Classification: An Introduction to the Botanical Ethnography of a Mayan‐Speaking People of Highland Chiapas. New York and London: Academic Press, 1974. xxii + 660 pp. Tables, figures, maps, illustrations, appendixes, references, and indexes. $39.50 (cloth).     

The Ohio Data Archives

The Ottoman government obtained current information on the empire's sources of revenue through periodic registers called tahrir defterleri. These documents include detailed information on taxpaying subjects and taxable resources, making it possible to study the economic and social history of the Middle East and eastern Europe in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Although the use of these documents has been typically limited to the construction of local histories, adopting a more optimistic attitude toward their potential and using appropriate sampling procedures can greatly increase their contribution to historical scholarship. They can be used in comprehensive quantitative studies and in addressing questions of broader historical significance or larger social scientific relevance.     

The Greek-Norwegian Deep-Water Archaeological Survey

From 1999 to 2003 the project surveyed the sea-bed in selected areas in Greece in order to locate marine cultural remains in depths below 50 m that have not been explored by divers. The project has shown that it is possible to perform systematic large-area surveys in deeper waters using off-the-shelf equipment from available small ships, at relatively low cost with good results.
© 2006 The Authors     

Race, Protest, and Public Space: Contextualizing Lefebvre in the U.S. City

Since the early 1990s, Henri Lefebvre's theory of the social production of space has become widely used by Anglophone academics to understand contemporary urban processes in the Western world. This article argues that care must be taken in transporting Lefbevre's theoretical framework from one context to another. When applied in places like U.S. cities, it must be contextualized in relation to significant sociospatial processes, especially race. It is also argued that when the racialized geographies of U.S. cities are taken into account, Lefebvre's work—with its focus on the role representation plays in the production of space—aids our understanding of contemporary urban processes. The article develops this argument through an engagement with the racialized public spaces in and around downtown Lexington, Kentucky. The killing of an African-American teenager by a White police officer and the ensuing violence and commentary, especially two editorial cartoons, provide the opportunity to contextualize Lefebvre's theory. Furthermore, the case allows us to understand the role racialized representations of space play into the construction of urban geographies. The paper concludes by emphasizing the role of the body in Lefebvre's understanding of space and suggests that his twin notions of "the right to the city" and "the right to difference" hold out hope for the grassroots development of antiracist urban public spaces.