Soil-Structure Interaction on a Shallow Rigid Circular Foundation: SH Wave Source from Near-Field Excitations

A closed-form wave function analytic solution is presented in this article regarding the two-dimensional scattering and diffraction of a flexible wall sitting on a rigid shallow circular foundation embedded in an elastic half-space that is activated by a nearby anti-plane line source such as a blast caused by underground construction or mineral exploration or a near-field fault rupture, using similar methodology as the other paper in a series [Lee and Luo, 2013]. These wave propagation influences, although often treated as a transient process, may be simulated as linear combinations of steady-simple harmonic responses as studied in this article. Ground surface displacements spectra for wide-band of incident wave frequencies are calculated. Based on the spectra obtained, the dependence of near-field ground displacements are shown with respect to the rise-to-span ratio of foundation profile, frequency of incident waves, distance of source from the foundation, and mass ratios of various media (foundation-structure-soil). The screening effect of rigid foundation upon ground motions behind grazing incident waves is also presented.     

The Unthinkable and the Unseen: Community Archaeology and Decolonizing Social Imagination at Okeeheepkee,or the Lake Jackson Site

Recent decolonizing scholarship examines how Indigenous ways of knowing can transform archaeology. This article discusses community-based research undertaken with a Muskogee tribal town in North Florida, focusing on the archaeology of the Lake Jackson site (1100–1500 A.D.). Centering on the historical narratives circulated in this community illuminates gaps in the dominant archaeological discourse, or what Trouillot (Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History, 1995) calls the silences of history. Examples such as iconographic representations of “genderless” moths and possibilities of “invisible” mound structures render the limits of colonial imagination visible. Archaeology can move beyond these constraints by bridging the center and margins of archaeological production.     

Ancient DNA insights from the Middle Neolithic in Germany

Genetic studies of Neolithic groups in central Europe have provided insights into the demographic processes that have occurred during the initial transition to agriculture as well as in later Neolithic contexts. While distinct genetic patterns between indigenous hunter-gatherers and Neolithic farmers in Europe have been observed, it is still under discussion how the genetic diversity changed during the 5,000-year span of the Neolithic period. In order to investigate genetic patterns after the earliest farming communities, we carried out an ancient mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis of 34 individuals from Wittmar, Germany representing three different Neolithic farming groups (ca. 5,200–4,300 cal bc) including Rössen societies. Ancient DNA analysis was successful for six individuals associated with the Middle Neolithic Rössen and observed haplotypes were assigned to mtDNA haplogroups H5, HV0, U5, and K. Our results offer perspectives on the genetic composition of individuals associated with the Rössen culture at Wittmar and permit insights into genetic landscapes in central Europe at a time when regional groups first emerged during the Middle Neolithic.     

The failure of Asian American representation in All-American Girl and The Cho Show

This article examines Korean American comedian Margaret Cho's attempts to represent Asian American identity as the star of two television sitcoms, All-American Girl (1994) and The Cho Show (2008). It begins with All-American Girl, showing how its contradictions around race, ethnicity and gender demonstrate the ideological boundaries of the network sitcom genre. It then looks at how the post-network ‘celebreality’ sitcom, The Cho Show, reproduces the assimilationist identity politics promulgated in All-American Girl even as it purports to critique them. The commercial failure of these shows is traced ultimately to the broader institutionalised racism and sexism of the US entertainment industry, its perpetuation of the neoliberal ideology of the American Dream and the internationalisation of that ideology by social minorities.     

The Europeanization of Prehispanic tradition: Bernardino de Sahagún’s transformation of Aztec priests (tlamacazque) into classical wise men (tlamatinime)

The Nahua wise men known as tlamatinime have been treated as core figures of Prehispanic indigenous culture in Mexico. Most scholars, basing their opinions heavily on the works of Bernardino de Sahagún (Historia general de las cosas de Nueva España, Coloquios y doctrina cristiana, and the Florentine Codex) portraying the tlamatinime as scholars, philosophers, scribes, poets, and physicians who reflected the advanced and highly civilized nature of Prehispanic Mexico. However, in this article, I argue that in their search for indigenous intellectuals, scholars have overlooked one of Bernardino de Sahagún's pet projects: ‘taming’ or domesticating Aztec religious authorities, turning them from threatening shaman-like figures into misguided but otherwise professional teachers, thinkers, and public speakers, thereby stripping them of their religious authority.     

Changing trends in international marriages between Korean men and Southeast Asian women, 1993–2013

Korea witnessed a large increase in the fraction of men marrying spouses from Southeast Asia. In the 1990s, about one per cent of Korean men’s new marriages were to Southeast Asian women but by 2005, this increased to over nine per cent with even higher rates in rural areas. With the use of a logit model and Marriage Register data from 1993–2013, the determinants of international marriages are explored using a more rigorous approach and over a longer period of observation compared to previous studies. Older Korean men with lower socioeconomic status were more likely to marry a woman from Southeast Asia (compared to a fellow Korean). The predictors of international marriage differed depending on the wife’s birth country: if the wife had some college education there was a higher probability of marriage to a Filipino woman, but less likely to a woman from China or Vietnam, compared to marriage to a Korean woman. Finally, over the past two decades the education level, age at marriage, and country of origin of the foreign wives have changed substantially. The data shows fewer women migrating from China (of which about 70% are ethnically Korean), and a rising number from Vietnam. This ‘marriage migration’ has implications for the demographics, ethnicity, and occupational composition of those living in Korea.