Book reviews

The History of Political and Social Concepts: A Critical Introduction. By Melvin Richter (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995), vii + 204 pp., £ 35 cloth.

The Life of Adam Smith. By Ian Simpson Ross (Oxford: Clarendon, 1995) xxviii + 495 pp. £25.00 cloth.

Martin Heidegger and the Holocaust. Edited by Alan Milchman and Alan Rosenberg (Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press International, 1996) xiv + 271 pp. $60.00 cloth.

The Making of Portuguese Democracy. By Kenneth Maxwell (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), 250 pp. £14.95/$19.95 paper.

Engineering the Revolution: Arms and Enlightenment in France, 1763–1815. By Ken Alder (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997), xvi + 476 pp. $59.50/£45 cloth.

The Wars of Eduard Shevardnaze. By Carolyn McGiffert Ekedahl and Melvin A. Goodman (Unversity Park, PA: Pennsylvania State Press, 1997), xxiii + 331 pp. $29.95/£26.95 cloth.

The Legacy of the French Revolution. Edited by Ralph C. Hancock and L. Gary Lambert (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1996), viii + 299 pp. $19.95 paper.

Suffering and the Remedy of Art. By Harold Schweizer (State University of New York Press, 1997), xii +211 pp. $17.95 paper.

Intimacy and Exclusion: Religious Politics in Pre‐Revolutionary Baden. By Dagmar Herzog (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996), x + 252 pp. $49.50/£42.50 cloth, $16.95/£13.95 paper.

In Search of Dreamtime: The Quest for the Origin of Religion. By Tomoko Masuzawa (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993), 223 pp. $15.95 paper.

Courtship, Illegitimacy and Marriage in Early Modern England. By Richard Adair (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1996), ix + 273 pp. £40 cloth.

Correlation and Regression Analysis: A Historian's Guide. By Thomas J. Archdeacon (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1994), xxi + 352 pp. $44.95 cloth, $19.95 paper.

Unified Theories of Cognition. By Allen Newell (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1994), xiii + 549 pp. $19.95 paper.

Discipline and Experience: The Mathematical Way in the Scientific Revolution. By Peter Dear (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995), xii + 290 pp. $60.00 cloth, $24.00 paper.

The Transformation of Natural Philosophy: The case of Philip Melanchthon. By Sachiko Kusukawa (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), xv + 246 pp. $59.95/£35.00 cloth.

Otto Neurath: Philosophy Between Science and Politics. By Nancy Cartwright, Jordi Cat, Lola Fleck, and Thomas E. Uebel (Cambrdige: Cambridge University Press, 1996), xii + 288 pp. $59.95/£35.00 cloth.

Aramis or The Love of Technology. By Bruno Latour. Translated by Catherine Porter (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1996), x + 314 pp. $45.00 cloth, $19.95 paper.

Galileo on the World Systems: A New Abridged Translation and Guide. Translated and edited by Maurice A. Finocchiaro (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997), xi + 435 pp. $55.00 cloth, $19.95 paper.

Europe's Economy Looks East: Implications for Germany and the European Union. Edited by Stanley W. Black (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), xvi + 363 pp. £45.00/$ 64.95 cloth.

The Transformation of Capitalist Society. By Zellig S. Harris (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1997), xiii + 245 pp. £19.50 paper.

Bloodtaking and Peacemaking: Feud, Law, and Society in Saga Iceland. By William Ian Miller (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1997), xii + 407 pp. $17.95 paper.

From Virgil to Vietnam: The Founding Legend of Western Civilization. By Richard Waswo (Hanover: University Press of New England, 1997), xvi + 356 pp. n.p.g. cloth.

Reading Seminar XI: Lacan's Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis. Edited by Richard Feldstein, Bruce Fink, and Maire Jaanus (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995), xv + 291 pp. $16.95 paper.

Nature and the Idea of a Man‐Made World: An Investigation into the Evolutionary Roots of Form and Order in the Built Environment. By Norman Crowe (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1995 hardback, 1997 paper), 270 pp. $17.50 paper.

The Gothic Body: Sexuality, Materialism and Degeneracy at the Fin de Siècle. By Kelly Hurley (Cambridge University Press, 1996), xii + 203 pp. £30.00 $49.95 cloth.

Russia's Constitutional Revolution: Legal Consciousness and the Transition to Democracy 1985–1996. By Robert B. Ahdieh (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1997), viii + 255 pp. £26.95 $30.00 cloth, £13.50 $14.95 paper.

Hunters and Collectors: the Antiquarian Imagination in Australia. By Tom Griffiths (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), xiv + 416 pp. £45.00/$64.95 cloth.

Persecution, Extermination, Literature. By Sem Dresden, trans. by Henry G. Schogt (University of Toronto Press 1995), viii + 237 pp. N. America $45.00 cloth, $17.95 paper, Europe $54 cloth, $2.55 paper.

Essays on the Anthropology of Reason. By Paul Rabinow (Princeton: Princeton University Press 1996), vxii + 190 pp. $49.50 £40.00 cloth, $14.95 paper.

Dissolution: The Crisis of Communism and the End of East Germany. By Charles S. Maier (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997), xx + 441 pp. $29.95 cloth.

History: What & Why?: Ancient, Modern and Postmodern Perspectives. By Beverley Southgate (London and New York: Routledge, 1996), xii + 167 pp. £11.99 paper.

Genealogies of the Text: Literature, Psychoanalysis, and Politics in Modern France. By Jeffrey Mehlman (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), xi + 262 pp. $59.95 cloth.

Launching Europe: An Ethnography of European Cooperation in Space Science. By Stacia E. Zabusky (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1995), xii + 257 pp. $17.95 paper/$49.50 cloth.

Elizabeth Gaskell: The Early Years. By John Chapple (Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 1997), xviii + 492 pp. £25.00 cloth.

Adam Ferguson: An Essay on the History of Civil Society. Edited by Fania Oz‐Salzberger (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), xxxv + 283 pp. £37.50/$54.95 cloth.

Greek Heroine Cults. By Jennifer Larson (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1995) xv + 235 pp., £33.50 cloth, £16.00 paper.

Florence Nightingale: Letters from the Crimea 1854–1856. Edited by Sue M. Goldie (Oxford: Mandolin, 1997), xx + 326 pp. £9.00 paper.

A History of Heaven: The Singing Silence. By Jeffrey Burton Russell (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1997), xv + 220 pp. $24.95 cloth.

Heidegger's Silence. By Berel Lang (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1996), xi + 129 pp. $19.95 cloth.

Simon de Montfort. By J. R. Maddicott (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), xxiii + 404 pp., 14.95/ $24.95 paper.

Communities of Violence: Persecutions of Minorities in the Middle Ages. By David Nirenberg (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996), viii + 301 pp. $29.95/£23.95, cloth.     

Modeling Mechanisms of Cultural Diversity and Ethnicity in Hunter–Gatherers

This paper aims to analyze the emergence of ethnicity and cultural differentiation in hunter–gatherer groups, using computer simulation methods. The existence of differences and similarities between populations has long been a major topic of investigation for archaeologists, who have traditionally used material culture as a means to identify different human groups. Today, this approach is perceived as being too simplistic. However, in the absence of satisfactory models, it often continues to be assumed as valid. In this paper, we present a preliminary model and its computer implementation to predict how hunter–gatherer societies interacted and built cultural identities as a consequence of the way they interacted. Our starting point for such analysis assumes the definition of ethnicity as the production and reproduction of group identity among members of a community, resulting from restricted cooperation flows. Results are compared with ongoing ethnoarchaeological research of Patagonian hunter–gatherers.     

The Odyssey Case: press,public opinion and future policy

The Odyssey Case refers to the dispute between Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc. (OME) and the Kingdom of Spain in the US courts to determine the ownership of more than 500,000 coins, as well as other artefacts, that OME recovered from a wreck‐site it had code‐named Black Swan. However, the process was much more than a dispute over the coins. It reflected many of the components involved in the protection of underwater archaeological heritage, especially when economic and political interests are at stake. Written from the perspective of an archaeologist working for the regional authority responsible for developing archaeological policy, this paper tries to assess the case's impact on future policy development.     

From Iberia to the Southern Levant: The Movement of Silver Across the Mediterranean in the Early Iron Age

Journal of World Prehistory - The origins of the silver trade across the Mediterranean, and the role of the Phoenicians in this phenomenon, remain contentious. This is partly because of...     

Microwear Analysis of Retouched Glass Fragments from Fortlet Miñana,Azul, Argentina, 1860–1863

This paper presents the results of a microscopic analysis conducted on supposedly retouched glass fragments that were likely used as tools. The pieces were recovered in a series of excavations performed at the historical site of Fortlet Miñana (1860–1869), a military settlement used during the war against the Indians on the southern border of Buenos Aires province, Argentina. The use of glass as raw material in archaeological sites of the historic period has frequently been reported in the Pampas and Patagonian regions. In this paper we present a review of ethnohistoric and ethnographic sources concerning the use of glass side scrapers, end scrapers, and arrowheads by aboriginal groups throughout the world. In order to perform the analysis, the glass fragments from Fortlet Miñana were compared to a series of experimental pieces on which traces of deliberate use on two kinds of raw material, wood and hide, were identified. The experimental approach and the microscopic analysis demonstrate that the retouched glass fragments recovered at Fortlet Miñana were not used as tools. Therefore, we conclude that microscopic analysis is of significant use to all researchers working with materials of this kind.     

Archaeogenetic study of prehistoric rice remains from Thailand and India: evidence of early <Emphasis Type="Italic">japonica</Emphasis> in South and Southeast Asia

We report a successful extraction and sequencing of ancient DNA from carbonized rice grains (Oryza sativa) from six archaeological sites, including two from India and four from Thailand, ranging in age from ca. 2500 to 1500 BP. In total, 221 archaeological grains were processed by PCR amplification and primary-targeted fragments were sequenced for comparison with modern sequences generated from 112 modern rice populations, including crop and wild varieties. Our results include the genetic sequences from both the chloroplast and the nuclear genomes, based on four markers from the chloroplast and six from the nuclear genome. These markers allow differentiation of indica rice from japonica rice, the two major subspecies of Asian rice (O. sativa) considered to have separate geographical origins. One nuclear marker differentiates tropical and temperate forms of subspecies japonica. Other markers relate to phenotypic variation selected for under domestication, such as non-shattering, grain stickiness (waxy starch) and pericarp colour. Recovery and identification of sequences from nuclear markers was generally poor, whereas recovery of chloroplast sequences was successful, with at least one of four markers recovered in 61 % of archaeological grains. This allowed for successful differentiation of indica or japonica subspecies variety, with japonica identified in all the Thai material and a mixture of indica and japonica chloroplasts in the two Indian assemblages. Rice subspecies was also assessed through conventional archaeobotanical methods relying on grain metrics, based on measurements from 13 modern populations and 499 archaeological grains. Grain metrics also suggest a predominance of japonica-type grains in the Southeast Asian sites and a mixture of japonica and indica in the Indian sites with indica in the minority. The similar results of grain metrics and ancient DNA (aDNA) affirm that grain measurements have some degree of reliability in rice subspecies identification. The study also highlights the great potential of ancient DNA recovery from archaeological rice. The data generated in the present study adds support to the model of rice evolution that includes hybridization between japonica and proto-indica.     

Millerocaulis zamunerae sp. nov. (Osmundaceae) from Jurassic,geothermally influenced,wetland environments of Patagonia,Argentina

Sagasti, A.J., García Massini, J., Escapa, I.H., Guido, D.M. & Channing, A., August 2016. Millerocaulis zamunerae sp. nov. (Osmundaceae) from Jurassic geothermally influenced wetland environments of Patagonia, Argentina. Alcheringa 40, xxx–xxx. ISSN 0311-5518

A new species of Millerocaulis Erasmus ex. Tidwell emend. Vera is defined based on several permineralized stems recovered from geothermally influenced chert deposits in the Middle–Late Jurassic La Matilde Formation (Santa Cruz, Argentina). Millerocaulis zamunerae sp. nov. is characterized by the presence of an ectophloic dictyoxylic siphonostele, inner parenchymatic and outer sclerotic cortices, homogeneous sclerotic ring in the petiole bases, two masses of sclerenchyma lining the concavity of the petiolar vascular bundle, petiolar inner cortex with sclerenchyma strands in the outermost petiole cycles and stipular wings having one large and several smaller sclerenchyma bundles. Millerocaulis zamunerae inhabited geothermal wetlands and other hot-spring-related sedimentary facies associated with the La Bajada epithermal deposit. Reference to active geothermal wetlands, analogous living plants and other fossil hot spring ecosystems suggest the plant’s tolerance of physico-chemical stressors including elevated temperature, pH, salinity and phytotoxic metals/metalloids. Millerocaulis zamunerae thrived in wetlands preserved in the Jurassic geothermal systems of Santa Cruz Province, the same kind of environment in which Equisetum thermale Channing et al. was recorded previously.

Ana Julia Sagasti [anajusagasti@gmail.com] División Paleobotánica, Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo. Becaria Doctoral Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, Paseo del Bosque S/N B1900FWA La Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Juan García Massini [massini112@yahoo.com.ar] Centro Regional de Investigaciones Científicas y Transferencia Tecnológica de La Rioja (CRILAR), Provincia de La Rioja, UNLaR, SEGEMAR, UNCa, CONICET. Entre Ríos y Mendoza S/N, 5301 Anillaco, La Rioja Argentina. Ignacio H. Escapa [iescapa@mef.org.ar] Museo Paleontológico Egidio Feruglio, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, Av. Fontana 140, U9100GYO, Trelew, Chubut, Argentina. Diego M. Guido [diegoguido@yahoo.com] Instituto de Recursos Minerales (INREMI), Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo, Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Calle 64 y 120, La Plata (1900), Argentina. Alan Channing [channinga@gmail.com] School of Earth & Ocean Sciences, Cardiff University, Cardiff CF10 3AT, UK.     

The Potential of EBSD and EDS for Ceramics Investigations—Case Studies on Sherds of Pre‐Columbian Pottery

The work focuses on the potential of structural and chemical examinations by scanning electron microscopy based methods for archaeometric studies on ceramics. Achieved by a single preparation technique (polished block sections), the feasibility and benefits of electron backscatter diffraction are demonstrated as case studies using polychrome examples of pre‐Columbian pottery (Wari, Moche and Cajamarca). Elemental and phase maps allow for separate consideration of clay and temper. Identification of mineral phases and intergrowths of temper particles provide information for clarifying clay procurement and firing techniques with respect to local versus non‐local pottery to enlighten trade relations, technological transfer and shared heritage of pre‐Columbian cultures.