Ethnoarchaeological study of phytolith assemblages from an agro-pastoral village in Northern Greece (Sarakini): development and application of a Phytolith Difference Index

Phytolith assemblages are analysed in an ethnographic agro-pastoral community in Northern Greece. A new method for analyzing the data, combined with the concentrations of phytoliths per gram sediment, helps to differentiate diverse uses of space in the village. The Phytolith Difference Index (PDI) contrasts the phytolith assemblages in sediment samples from the region around the village least affected by human activities with those in the village and its immediate surroundings. The PDI reveals that many of the samples are dominated by the input of the stalks of the domestic cereal, rye, which is used for food, animal fodder and roof thatching. The PDI also differentiates between dung from mules or donkeys with dung from free ranging cows and goats. Activity areas analysed include storage areas, stabling areas, animal enclosures, floors from living areas that were repeatedly swept, hearths and open areas between structures. The combined use of the PDI, together with phytolith concentrations and phytolith morphotype analyses, may prove to be useful for deciphering activity areas in archaeological sites of not only agro-pastoralists, but also pastoralists and hunter–gatherers.     

Environmental Justice Meets Risk‐Class: The Relational Distribution of Environmental Bads

Recent treatments of environmental justice have highlighted the need to move beyond focusing upon inequalities in the distribution of environmental risks to address other aspects of environmental injustice, including unequal participation and recognition. While acknowledging the importance of extending environmental justice to include these other dimensions of justice, this paper argues that more, not less, analytical attention needs to be devoted to the diverse logics of distribution of environmental risks. In light of continuing dilemmas associated with whether environmental inequalities can be just or, alternatively, that environmental inequality and injustice are co‐extensive, this paper proposes to untangle some key connections between environmental inequalities and injustice through a critical confrontation of environmental justice with risk‐class analysis. Focusing on the positional or relational distribution of environmental bads as analysed in risk‐class analysis, this paper argues that bringing these two bodies of knowledge together can illuminate how relational inequalities have characteristics that make them particularly illegitimate from a justice perspective, thus making an advance in identifying key connections between environmental inequality and injustice.     

Returning home: the return of Irish-born football migrants to Ireland’s football leagues and their cultural re-adaption, 1945–2010

This article examines a number of Irish professional soccer players’ career trajectories subsequent to their return to Ireland from the United Kingdom. More specifically, we explore their experiences following termination of their careers there, their adjustments to life after their professional football careers as well as the options and challenges in relocating into alternative professions and migratory positions. Moreover, how players cope and deal with the considerable difficulties in adapting to post-professional football career transition and termination is highlighted. Prior experience of League of Ireland or Irish League football does not impact on career duration in English League football. The majority of players that return following a career there stay in the game through participation as players with Irish professional clubs. This article also identifies the lack of structures, at many clubs in England and Ireland, for facilitating players’ adaptation to alternative careers following a career in professional football.     

Towards a European spatial planning policy: Theoretical dilemmas and institutional implications

This article examines the emergence, the present configuration and the perspectives of a spatial planning policy at a European level in the light of the institutional and economic properties embodied in the nature of the European integration process. First, it recapitulates the main historical steps through which the idea of a European view about spatial questions has been developed as a combined result of cohesion and solidarity objectives and liberal market constraints. On the basis of these complementary and competitive principles, the article explores the conceptual identity of the emerging policy and discusses especially the reorientations of the spatial justice concept under a market integration paradigm. Finally, it presents the fundamental traits for the institutional design of the new policy, which lead to the reshaping of the traditional hierarchical, substantialist and normative profile of welfare spatial intervention towards an horizontal, procedural and pluralist model of collective spatial coordination. The article comes to the conclusion that the conceptual and institutional innovations to which the emergence of a European spatial planning policy is submitted constitute a part of a more general rearrangement in the legitimation basis of public policies in a post‐national and post‐welfare Europe. Recognition of these transformations could be seen both as a search for new forms of governance beyond the state and as a chance for rethinking traditional concepts of social theory in a time of change.     

The phytolith archaeological record: strengths and weaknesses evaluated based on a quantitative modern reference collection from Greece

The phytolith record from archaeological strata is a powerful tool for reconstructing aspects of past human behaviour and ecology. Considerable insights into the problems and potentials of this record can be obtained by studying phytoliths in modern plants. We prepared a phytolith reference collection of modern plants mostly from northern Greece that includes quantitative information on phytolith concentrations (number of phytoliths per gram dry organic material) and morphological assemblages. Here we analyse this reference collection with the aim of evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of the archaeological phytolith record. The reference collection comprises 62 different plant taxa. Of them, 28 are trees, 1 conifer, 10 shrubs and 1 herb, 3 domesticated annual legumes and 19 monocotyledons. We demonstrate quantitatively the extent to which woody species, legumes and fruits of dicots contribute only small amounts of phytoliths to the sediments per unit tissue dry weight, while leaves of trees and shrubs produce significant amounts of phytoliths and grasses are prolific phytolith producers. We compare the data of this reference collection with a similar reference collection from another Mediterranean ecosystem (Israel). The comparison indicates that some aspects of phytolith production are probably genetically controlled, whereas others are environmentally controlled. We note that despite the fact that woody species produce few phytoliths per gram of tissue, their record can be most informative when taking into account other properties of the sediments. We also note that jigsaw puzzle-shaped phytoliths normally form in plants that grow in humid conditions, but may form in arid environments when the plants are irrigated. This study clearly shows the extent to which some plants can be under-represented and others over-represented in the phytolith record. Knowing the extent of this bias can greatly improve our interpretation of the phytolith record.     

A Special Brand of Sausage

Abstract: At our institution, the next iteration of the corporatization of higher education is the creation of a university brand. This brands us as academics and creates its own landscape of consumption. It also raises troubling issues about academic freedom.     

‘Waiting for Jardiwanpa’: History and Mediation in Warlpiri Fire Ceremonies

Warlpiri fire ceremonies, including Jardiwanpa, have been documented in various ethnographies and films for over 100 years. Focused on the documented history of these rituals in Yuendumu, and through ethnographic observations from recent decades, I analyse the transforming meanings of fire ceremonies in contemporary Warlpiri lives. I demonstrate that there have been post‐settlement shifts in ritual purpose due to sedentarisation and the increased connections that Warlpiri people have made to a broader world. I note in particular that, when monetary payment for performing Jardiwanpa for filmic representation became standard practice in the 1990s, the intricacies of the Dreaming were no longer central, nor were the original purposes of conflict resolution and the opening up of marriage restrictions. Several films have been made of fire ceremonies, resulting in fixed representations of what otherwise are emergent practices. This has impacted the ways in which these rituals can be held today, and Warlpiri people have had to creatively re‐negotiate a space for Jardiwanpa and similar fire ceremonies.