The Cradle of Thought: Growth,Learning, Play and Attachment in Neanderthal Children

Childhood is a core stage in development, essential in the acquisition of social, practical and cultural skills. However, this area receives limited attention in archaeological debate, especially in early prehistory. We here consider Neanderthal childhood, exploring the experience of Neanderthal children using biological, cultural and social evidence. We conclude that Neanderthal childhood experience was subtly different from that of their modern human counterparts, orientated around a greater focus on social relationships within their group. Neanderthal children, as reflected in the burial record, may have played a particularly significant role in their society, especially in the domain of symbolic expression. A consideration of childhood informs broader debates surrounding the subtle differences between Neanderthals and modern humans.     

Women and microcredit: alternative readings of subjectivity,agency, and gender change in rural Mexico

Within the last two decades, the growth of microcredit, or the provision of small loans to poor borrowers, has become a key development initiative in the Global South. This is particularly important for questions of gender relationships, as the majority of microcredit recipients worldwide are low-income women. However, most assessments of microcredit and gender emphasize issues of individual empowerment rather than the large-scale political implications of credit provision. In this article, I critique the use of mainstream empowerment models employed in the assessment of microcredit's ability to provoke changes in gender relationships. I argue that these models often fail to describe microcredit's effects on women's lives due to their epistemological framework, which pushes aside questions of geographical and historical specificity in pursuit of a universally empowered microcredit subject. Examining a mainstream empowerment model I used to conduct research in rural Mexico, I highlight these problems and present an alternative analysis of subjectivity, agency, and gender change as a result of microcredit provision.     

Pittite Triumph and Whig Failure in the Cambridge University Constituency, 1780–96*

Cambridge University has been featured in a wide range of studies of the long 18th century, but few have focused exclusively on the dynamics behind its politics. This is surprising since many of the Cambridge University electors were close to leading parliamentarians. The Cambridge University constituency was contested at each of the three successive general elections from 1780 onwards until 1796. Parliamentary contests often brought Cambridge University's political tensions into focus, which is why a detailed analysis of the poll books can demonstrate how different networks within the university behaved and could define the performance of candidates for the constituency. The relationships between the chancellors, vice-chancellors, high stewards, university officers, college heads, fellows, senate members and members of parliament who collectively made up the leadership are fundamental to understanding the electorate of Cambridge University. These relationships, in terms of friendships, alliances and rivalries, also influenced political and patronage networks within the university. William Pitt the Younger's success in changing the political complexion of Cambridge University is part of the broader realignment in British politics during the final two decades of the 18th century. Under the pressure of these events, Whig unity would come to an end as new divisions between ministerialists and reformers emerged. The experience of Cambridge University can shed light on the national shifts as well as how electioneering was carried out in the university parliamentary constituencies.     

The Unsheltering Sky

The cooperation of China and India in replacing chemicals that damage the stratospheric ozone layer is critical to the success of the world's first environmental agreement, the Montreal Protocol. China's leaders accepted the agreement more readily than did their Indian counterparts. These divergent responses are attributed to the nature of the policy issue in question, the impact of regime type upon state leaders' environmental policies, and dissimilar linkages between international and domestic actors and forces.     

THE ORIGIN OF THE OAK RIDGES AND ORANGEVILLE MORAINES OF SOUTHERN ONTARIO

T he O rangeville and Oak Ridges moraines have long been considered the main Iandforms constructed during the initial deglaciation of southern Ontario. Recent mapping and stratigraphic studies indicate that they were deposited rather later than the initial phase of deglaciation. This note briefly describes some of these recent developments.     

Narrative policy images: Intersecting narrative & attention in presidential stories about the environment

Drawing on ideas about how narratives focus attention, this paper develops a “narrative policy image” using the Punctuated Equilibrium Theory and Narrative Policy Framework explanations of the policy process. The concept of a narrative policy image is applied to test partisan expectations about presidential environmental policy stories in State of the Union Addresses over 73 years. This research finds that Democratic stories focus on problems like climate change and victims and Republican stories emphasize solutions like new programs and upholding the status quo. These trends point to potential story types and suggest a narrative policy image, including both narrative components and valence, may be a useful concept for understanding narrative attention in macropolitics.     

Graphical Inference in Geographical Research

Graphical inference, a process refined by Buja et al., can be a useful tool for geographers as it provides a visual and spatial method to test null hypotheses. The core idea is to generate sample datasets from a null hypothesis to visually compare with the actual dataset. The comparison is performed from a line‐up of graphs where a single graph of the actual data is hidden among multiple graphs of sample data. If the real data is discernible, the null hypothesis can be rejected. Here, we illustrate the utility of graphical inference using examples from climatology, biogeography, and health geography. The examples include inferences about location of the mean, change across space and time, and clustering. We show that graphical inference is a useful technique to answer a broad range of common questions in geographical datasets. This approach is needed to avoid the common pitfalls of “straw man” hypotheses and “p‐hacking” as datasets become increasingly larger and more complex.     

Correspondence: ‘TLS’ Reviewing

Colonial Leviathan: State Formation in Mid‐Nineteenth Century Canada edited by Allan Greer and Ian Radforth. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1992. Pp. xii + 328. £36.00 (hardback); £14.95 (paperback). ISBN 0–8020–5931–7; 0–8020–6871–5.

True Government by Choice Men? Inspection, Education, and State Formation in Canada West by Bruce Curtis. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1992. Pp.ix + 250. £36.00 (hardback); £14.95 (paperback). ISBN 0–8020–5967–8; 0–8020–6894–4.

Britain and the Origins of Canadian Confederation, 1837–67 by Ged Martin. Basingstoke and London: Macmillan, 1995. Pp.xi + 388. £47.50 (hardback). ISBN 0–333–52288–5.

Ex Uno Plures: Federal‐Provincial Relations in Canada, 1867–1896 by Garth Stevenson. Montreal and Kingston: McGill‐Queen's University Press, 1994. Pp.xi + 401. £38.50 (hardback). ISBN 0–7735–0986–0.     

Geoengineering: re-making climate for profit or humanitarian intervention?

Climate engineering, or geoengineering, refers to large-scale climate interventions to lower the earth's temperature, either by blocking incoming sunlight or removing carbon dioxide from the biosphere. Regarded as ‘technofixes’ by critics, these strategies have evoked concern that they would extend the shelf life of fossil-fuel driven socio-ecological systems for far longer than they otherwise would, or should, endure. A critical reading views geoengineering as a class project that is designed to keep the climate system stable enough for existing production systems to continue operating. This article first examines these concerns, and then goes on to envision a regime driven by humanitarian agendas and concern for vulnerable populations, implemented through international development and aid institutions. The motivations of those who fund research and implement geoengineering techniques are important, as the rationale for developing geoengineering strategies will determine which techniques are pursued, and hence which ecologies are produced. The logic that shapes the geoengineering research process could potentially influence social ecologies centuries from now.