WHITE LUMPS IN FIFTH- TO SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY AD MORTARS FROM NORTHERN ITALY

Ancient mortars from northern Italy, dating from the fifth to the seventeenth century AD, were examined in order to formulate an hypothesis regarding the origin of the white lumps often observed in these mortars and in other samples of the same geographical provenance. Various characterization techniques were employed, including scanning electron microscopy, X-ray powder diffraction and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and micro-FTIR spectroscopy.     

QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS OF COPPER-TIN BRONZES BY MEANS OF GLOW DISCHARGE OPTICAL EMISSION SPECTROMETRY

Glow discharge optical emission spectrometry (GDOES) has been used for obtaining calibration curves for copper, tin, lead, silver, antimony, arsenic, zinc and iron from standards including copper-base alloys (Cu 61.33-99.95%) and from bronze Punic coins. The GDOES results were calibrated using atomic absorption spectroscopy with inductively coupled plasma atomization (ICPAAS) to analyse the standards and coins. For all these materials, the results show that via GDOES it is possible to obtain reliable and reproducible calibration curves for copper, tin, lead, zinc and iron with a linear behaviour as a function of the content. The quantitative GDOES and ICPAAS data for the coins have been also compared with those obtained via X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and it is shown that GDOES, ICPAAS and XRF agree well with one another considering that the bronze coins are inhomogeneous to some degree. As an example of GDOES analytical features, a depth concentration profile through a thin bronze patina is shown and briefly discussed.     

Beyond Gender Roles? Conceptualizing the Social and Economic Lives of Rural Peoples in Sub-Saharan Africa

The repeated failure to design and appropriately target policies and interventions which address the needs of rural peoples in Africa suggests that something may be wrong with our understanding of the way that these peoples live their lives. Perspectives which focus on intra-household processes, and on gender issues in particular, represent useful advances in the way that the social and economic lives of Africa's rural peoples are conceptualized. However, this article questions the value of adopting development planning, policy and project approaches based on the rigid identification of `gender roles'. By reference to field research undertaken in northern Ghana, the paper aims to demonstrate that other social constructs, such as marital status and seniority, may be as important as gender in determining the roles and status of individuals in African rural societies. The article concludes by highlighting a number of practical implications of this finding in terms of the structuring of development-oriented research and the targeting of policy and interventions.     

ANOMALOUS CARBON-13 VALUES FOR FIBRE TEMPER IN CERAMICS*

Ceramic vessels from Later Stone Age sites in the Seacow river valley, South Africa, were heavily tempered with C4 grasses. However, most δ¹³C values of the temper fall between the known δ¹³C ranges for C4 and C3 grasses. Among possible C3 additives that could skew the signal, ground bone, animal dung, alpine grass, Karoo scrub ash, and humic acid contamination are eliminated. The sherd surfaces yield fatty chars with C3-like values. Although these are not enough to account for all the skewing, they represent only the final cooking event. They were preceded by many such events in which fat was absorbed into the C4 grass then charred to soot by later periods in the fire. Thus organic carbon with the isotope composition of the fat built up while the vessel remained in use.     

ELECTRON SPIN RESONANCE STUDY OF WHITE MARBLES FROM THARROS (SARDINIA): A REAPPRAISAL OF THE TECHNIQUE,POSSIBILITIES AND LIMITATIONS*

The characterization of various samples of white marble from the archaeological site of Tharros (Sardinia) is the starting point for the reexamination of the capabilities of electron spin resonance (ESR) spectroscopy as a tool for identifying the quarries of origin of ancient marble artefacts. Existing methods and data bases are employed for the assignment of our samples, but also reviewed to see if a more extensive use of the technique is feasible. It turns out that ESR spectroscopy, coupled with other available methods, may readily provide valuable information, often yielding the final answer to the problem of marble provenance. However, it is also clear that much work has still to be done to standardize the data collection and analysis procedures and to expand the available data base.     

LIME PLASTER AS AN ADHESIVE FOR HAFTING EIGHTEENTH-DYNASTY FLINT SICKLES FROM TELL EL DAB'A,EASTERN NILE DELTA (EGYPT)*

A combination of analytical techniques, including thin-section observations, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and X-ray fluorescence analysis, was applied to study the nature and origin of an adhesive used for mounting flint sickle blades to a wooden handle, recovered from early Eighteenth Dynasty culture layers of the multi-layer settlement at Tell el Dab'a, Lower Eygpt. The results obtained from these investigations led to the conclusion that the adhesive is a pure lime plaster, thus providing the oldest evidence for the use of this material as a binding agent so far known in ancient Egypt.     

Space and the Structuring of Disciplinary Power: An Interpretive Review

This paper is an attempt to provide an organizing framework for understanding geographic (and related) research that deals with modern social control. The basic panoptic logic of what Foucault termed disciplinary power can be understood to operate at a variety of scales, from that of buildings to that of national territories. But the particular way in which disciplinary power plays out, the way in which the logic of visibility interacts with other forms of power, varies systematically with scale and context. Thus I offer a more scale- and context-sensitive typology of "disciplines", and the bulk of the essay is devoted to explaining the categories of this typology with reference to existing research. The larger purpose of this paper is to improve our understanding of how modern social control is bound up with larger socio-spatial relations.     

The assumption of equilibrium in models of migration

In recent articles Evans (1990) and Harrigan and McGregor (1993) (hereafter HM) scrutinized the equilibrium model of migration presented in a 1989 paper by Schachter and Althaus. This model used standard microeconomics to analyze gross interregional migration flows based on the assumption that gross flows are in approximate equilibrium. HM criticized the model as theoretically untenable, while Evans summoned empirical as well as theoretical objections. HM claimed that equilibrium of gross migration flows could be ruled out on theoretical grounds. They argued that the absence of net migration requires that either all regions have equal populations or that unsustainable regional migration propensities must obtain. In fact some moves are inter- and other are intraregional. It does not follow, however, that the number of interregional migrants will be larger for the more populous region. Alternatively, a country could be divided into a large number of small regions that have equal populations. With uniform propensities to move, each of these analytical regions would experience in equilibrium zero net migration. Hence, the condition that net migration equal zero is entirely consistent with unequal distributions of population across regions. The criticisms of Evans were based both on flawed reasoning and on misinterpretation of the results of a number of econometric studies. His reasoning assumed that the existence of demand shifts as found by Goldfarb and Yezer (1987) and Topel (1986) invalidated the equilibrium model. The equilibrium never really obtains exactly, but economic modeling of migration properly begins with a simple equilibrium model of the system. A careful reading of the papers Evans cited in support of his position showed that in fact they affirmed rather than denied the appropriateness of equilibrium modeling. Zero net migration together with nonzero gross migration are not theoretically incompatible with regional heterogeneity of population, wages, or amenities.     

LIBERAL AND MARXIST THEORY WITH RESPECT TO WORK AND LEISURE: A GEOGRAPHER'S ANTITHESIS TO THEIR COMMON THESIS

The special number of the Canadian Geographer devoted to West Edmonton Mall raises important questions, notably that of the relative status, as values, of work (seen historically as fundamental to our culture), and of leisure, perceived, albeit controversially, as being embodied in wem. In preparing to present my principal thesis, I review recent reinterpretations of human behaviour advanced by workers in the fields of symbolic interaction and the sociology of knowledge. These schools ha ve given rise to the concept of, though not the term, functional religion. The meaning of this concept is close to that of ideology; a comparative analysis of the two terms justifies using the former. A survey of recent work by geographers who approach religion from a functional point of view closes the second part of the paper. In the course of this review the relative status of work and leisure emerges as a significant issue. The view of leisure as a norm presented in the third part of the paper is that advocated by Pieper, Huizinga, and de Grazia. They argue that the Classical view, according to which human life finds its meaning in activities that are carried on for their own sake (e.g., games), rather than in those pursued for the material rewards they offer, is correct. Following their lead, and in opposition to both Marxists and Liberals, I argue that the adoption of leisure as a fundamental value would provide a more satisfactory foundation for our culture than work has to this point. Le numéro spécial du Géographe canadien consacréà?étude du West Edmonton Mall soulève plusieurs questions importantes, notamment celle du statut relatif, comme valeur, du travail (valeur-clé historiquement dans notre culture) et du loisir, valeurs incarnées, bien que de façon controversées, dans le WEM. Pour établir les bases de la thèse principale, on examine les réinterprétations récentes du comportement hurnain avancées, dans les sciences humaines, par des chercheurs travaillant dans les domaines de ?interaction symbolique et la sociologie du savoir. Ces écoles ont engendré le concept, sinon le terme, de la religion fonctionelle. Le sens de ce terme est proche de celui de ?idéologie; une analyse comparative des deux termes justifie ?emploi du premier. Pour conclure la deuxièrne partie de ce mémoire, on passe en revue quelques écrits récents par des géographes qui abordent la religion ?un point de vue fonctionnel. De cet examen il ressort que le statut relative du travail et du loisir est ?une importance capitale. Dans la troisième partie, on présente une perspective sur le loisir qui est proche de celle qu'avancent Pieper, Huizinga, et de Grazia. Ceux-cisupportent la position des auteurs classiques, selon qui la vie humaine trouve sa signification dans les activités entreprises pour ellesměmes (par exemple, les jeux) plutǒt que pour le gain matériel. Appuyant leur argument, et m'opposant à celui des marxistes et des libéraux, je prétends que ?adoption du loisir comme vaieur fondamentale fournirait une meilleure assise à notre culture que celle offerte jusqu'ici par le travail.