Negotiating Remote Borderland Access: Small‐Scale Trade on the Vietnam–China Border

This article explores the cross‐border trading networks and practices of highland residents in north‐west Vietnam. It reveals how such individuals, of highland minority and majority Kinh ethnicities, negotiate the political reality of an international border in highly pragmatic ways as they augment their livelihoods by trading commodities with inhabitants in south‐west China. We follow four particular commodities, traded across different political tiers of border crossing (each with specific rules, regulations and negotiations), by a diverse range of traders. In doing so we argue that border access is mediated by a complex and multifaceted set of social and structural components including not only state policy, but ethnically‐embedded social relations and specific geographic variables that, in turn, are engendering disparate economic opportunities.     

Reevaluating the Age of the Iberomaurusian in Morocco

Chronological evidence for the Iberomaurusian is currently very limited and there are problems with some of the published radiocarbon dates. In this paper we present new AMS dating results from well-stratified cave sequences at Ghar Cahal, Kehf el Hammar and Taforalt in northern and eastern Morocco. The longest of these sequences, from Taforalt, shows an intermittent occupation history spanning the period ca. 18,000–11,000 bp (radiocarbon determinations presented in this paper are expressed as ka bp or bp, whilst approximate calendar ages are expressed as Cal bp) with a marked intensification of cave use soon after ca. 13,000 bp. Using calibrated AMS ages in comparison to sea surface temperature evidence from the Alboran Sea core MD95-2043 and more generally to Greenland ice δ¹⁸O core records, we suggest that there may have been a relationship, albeit a complex one, between climatic events and cave activity on the part of Iberomaurusian populations.     

Late Silurian vertebrate microfossils from the Carnarvon Basin,Western Australia

Burrow, C.J., Turner, S., Trinajstic, K. &; Young, G.C., 27 February 2019. Late Silurian vertebrate microfossils from the Carnarvon Basin, Western Australia. Alcheringa 43, 204–219. ISSN 0311-5518.

A core sample from the offshore Pendock 1A well, Carnarvon Basin, Western Australia yielded microvertebrate residues at an horizon in the lower part of the Hamelin Formation, dated as late Silurian, ? Ludlow, based on associated conodonts. The fish fauna comprises loganelliiform thelodont scales, the ? stem gnathostome Aberrosquama occidens nov. gen. et sp., the acanthodian Nostolepis sp. aff. N. alta, and the ? stem osteichthyan Andreolepis sp. aff. A. petri. Because of the paucity of the material, and some differences between the Pendock scales and those of established species, a precise age can not be confirmed; however, the composition of the fauna at generic level most closely resembles that of late Silurian (Ludlow) assemblages from northern Eurasia.

Carole J. Burrow* [carole.burrow@gmail.com], Geosciences, Queensland Museum, Hendra QLD 4011, Australia; Susan Turner [palaeoich@yahoo.com], Geosciences, Queensland Museum, Hendra QLD 4011, Australia; Kate Trinajstic [k.trinajstic@curtin.edu.au], School of Molecular and Life Sciences, Curtin University, Perth, WA 6102, Australia; Gavin C. Young [gavin.young@anu.edu.au], Research School of Physics and Engineering, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2000, Australia.     

UPWARDS,OUTWARDS AND WESTWARDS: RELOCATION OF ETHNIC MINORITY GROUPS IN THE OSLO REGION

Our purpose in this article is to examine socio‐economic and spatial integration of ethnic minorities in the Oslo region. We analyse relocation between 1998 and 2008 for members of ten minority groups along three overlapping dimensions: upwards in the neighbourhood hierarchy, outwards from the inner city to all suburbs, and westwards from a less affluent to a more affluent part of the region. The results provide some limited support for spatial assimilation theory. Two minority groups, Iranians and Vietnamese, comply partly with the theory. Another group, Filipinos, has stagnated in its socio‐economic and spatial integration. The remaining groups do not relocate in accordance with the native pattern, or fail to integrate in socio‐economic terms. The discrepancy between theory and results is most pronounced along the westward axis. We interpret the results in a broader context of regional and national circumstances: spatial assimilation theory may have different utility in different welfare regimes, depending on spatial inequality and the politics of place.