Further developments in molecular sex assignment: a blind test of 18th and 19th century human skeletons

The identification of sex in human remains recovered from archaeological locations is important in order to understand the social and biological structure of past societies, and to reconstruct past population demographic events. Sex determination is usually based on morphological traits of the skeletons, with the drawback that most methods do not apply to juveniles and require well preserved remains. In cases where morphological methods cannot be used, or are ambiguous, methods of molecular sexing systems are an alternative. In this methodological study we tested and validated the accuracy and usefulness of a molecular sexing method based on the amelogenin gene using pyrosequencing. We did this in a double blind study of documented 18th and 19th century human remains.     

THE SOCIOLOGY OF THE GROWTH/NO-GROWTH DEBATE*

This theoretical analysis focuses on the properties of conservative, liberal, and radical paradigms in social science and their application to the growth/no-growth debate in environmental policy literature. We find conservatives working with an evolutionary model of society which suggests that environmental problems are imperfections to be remedied by science, technology, and the free market. Liberals recognize the benefits and costs of growth, and they articulate ways to minimize the costs through state regulation and planning. Radicals argue for state ownership of the means of production and new cultural values about growth as the only effective environmental policies. This analysis closes with a discussion of the future of the growth debate in terms of these paradigms.     

A fatal flaw: Nairn's flight from theory

Bede Nairn, Civilising Capitalism: The Labor Movement in New South Wales, 1870–1900, ANU Press, Canberra, 1973, pp. 260 + xii, $8.95.