‘You just have to be smart’: spatial practices and subjectivity among women in sex work in London,Ontario

Social science research on the relationship between space and sex work, specifically among women in street-based settings, demonstrates the spatialized nature of risk and how different forms of civic and legal governance contribute to their socio-economic marginalization. However, these studies rarely consider the women’s spatial practices and gendered subjectivities beyond the sex trade, which is problematic because sex work is not their singular life activity or the only impetus for their spatial movements through the urban landscape. Using social mapping and interview data from 33 women in sex work in London, Ontario, this article explores how our participants navigate the spaces where they work and live alongside those regarding health care, social services, violence and places they avoid. Findings reveal that the women traverse diverse spaces as they access health services, especially for crisis issues that necessitate travel to hospitals located beyond the inner city. The spaces used to access social services and those they avoid (i.e. to not be emotionally triggered or under police surveillance) overlap significantly, which presents unique challenges for our participants who depend upon these services for their socio-economic survival. The theoretical contributions these data make to the feminist geography literature on gender and space are discussed, particularly with respect to the issues of nomadic subjectivity and the relationality between city spaces and marginalized bodies.     

A Colonial Shipwreck in Saipan,Northern Mariana Islands

Previous underwater cultural heritage investigations conducted in the western Pacific's Northern Mariana Islands largely focused on the submerged World War Two remains, despite the islands’ rich colonial history. The island chain was the setting of numerous historical occupations including indigenous Chamorro populations, Spain, Germany, Japan and the United States, all of which created a lasting maritime heritage legacy on land and under water. This paper presents the first colonial shipwreck investigation to be undertaken by archaeologists and fills a gap in our history and knowledge of the Mariana Islands’ pre‐World War Two era.     

Obscure oases: natural,cultural and historical geography of western Queensland's Tertiary sandstone springs

The distribution of surface water dictates human and animal activity in arid zones. Although typically small, hidden, and inaccessible, springs and wells fed by local aquifers were the only sources of reliable water across vast areas of inland Australia until the last century. Compared to larger, more accessible water sources such as riverine waterholes and Great Artesian Basin discharge springs, their history is sketchy and poorly documented, although rich in intrigue and mythology. Since the expansion of artificial waters and motorised transport, many of these small oases have been forgotten, and their location and permanence are now less well‐known than for thousands of years. We examine the distribution, hydrogeology, cultural history, and biological values of Tertiary sandstone springs in western Queensland based on a review of historical literature, interviews with long‐term residents, and extensive field surveys. One hundred and sixty springs were documented, and nearly 40% of these have declined in flow or become inactive since pastoral settlement for reasons that are not well understood. While their decline in some areas seems related to shallow bores sunk into their local aquifers, it is possible that some smaller springs owed their existence to regular human maintenance. Others are probably naturally dynamic over decadal time scales. This study documents an almost‐forgotten aspect of Queensland's natural and cultural history.     

Developing graduate attributes through participation in undergraduate research conferences

Graduate attributes are a framework of skills, attitudes, values and knowledge that graduates should develop by the end of their degree programmes. Adopting a largely qualitative approach and using semi-structured interviews, this paper outlines students’ experiences at a national undergraduate research conference over three years and evidences the graduate attributes developed. The students demonstrated intellectual autonomy, repurposing their work for presentation to a multidisciplinary audience through conversation with and benchmarking against peers. They gained confidence in expressing their identity as researchers and moved towards self-authorship, consciously balancing the contextual nature of their disciplinary knowledge with intra-personally grounded goals and values.     

Book Reviews

‘WE GATHER TOGETHER’: FOOD AND FESTIVAL IN AMERICAN LIFE. Edited by THEODORE H. HUMPHREY and LIN T. HUMPHREY. Utah State University Press, 1991. 289pp. $17.95 paper, ISBN 0-87421-155-7. Reviewed by Jennifer Chandler.

SPOKEN IN JEST. Edited by Gillian Bennett. Sheffield Academic Press, Sheffield, 1992. ISBN 1850752575. 296pp., 3 plates, 22 figures. £25 (cloth). Reviewed by Susan Storrier.

WEDDING CAKES AND CULTURAL HISTORY by SIMON CHARSLEY. Routledge, London, 1992. 162pp. 4 illustrations. ISBN 0-415-02648-2 (hbk); 0-415-02649-0 (pbk). Reviewed by George Monger.

NORSE MYTHS. By R. I. PAGE. London: British Museum Press, 1990. 80pp. £5.95. ISBN 0 7141 2062 6. Reviewed by Carolyne Larrington.

DIE MAUS IM JUMBO-JET: NEUE SAGENHAFTE GESCHICHTEN VON HEUTE. By ROLF WILHELM BREDNICH, Beck'sche Reihe 435. München: Beck, 1991. 143 pp. Reviewed by W. F. H. Nicolaisen.

THE RISE OF MAGIC IN EARLY MEDIEVAL EUROPE by VALERIE J. FLINT. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1991. 452 pp. ISBN 0-19-820093-5. Reviewed by Jacqueline Simpson.

INTERNATIONAL PROVERB SCHOLARSHIP: AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY. SUPPLEMENT I (1800–1981). WOLFGANG MIEDER. Garland Publishing Inc., New York and London, 1990. 436 pp. Reviewed by Malcolm Jones.

THE CONCISE OXFORD DICTIONARY OF PROVERBS. Ed. JOHN SIMPSON and JENNIFER SPEAKE. Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York (2nd ed.), 1992. 316 pp. ISBN 0-19-866177-0. Reviewed by Malcolm Jones.

A DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN PROVERBS. Ed. WOLFGANG MIEDER, S. A. KINGSBURY and K. B. HARDER. Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York, 1992. 710 pp. £27.50. ISBN 0-19-505399-0. Reviewed by Malcolm Jones.

ETHNIC MUSIC ON RECORDS. By RICHARD K. SPOTTSWOOD. University of Illinois Press, 1990. Volumes 1-7. Pp. 4,347. Illustrated. ISBN 0-252-01718-8 (set). Reviewed by Gordon Ashman.

DUNBAR THE MAKAR. By PRISCILLA BAWCUTT. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1992. 196pp. £50. ISBN 0-19-812963-7. Reviewed by Jacqueline Simpson.

SIGNS FROM THE ANCESTORS by M. JANE YOUNG, 1990. Reviewed by Donald Taylor.

THE NIGHTWAY by JAMES C FARIS, 1990. Reviewed by Donald Taylor.

FORMS OF DEFORMITY. By LYNN HOLDEN. Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement Series 131. Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1991. 370pp. Appendix and bibliography. ISBN 1-85074-327-X. £40. Reviewed by Jennifer Chandler.

CITY, MARRIAGE, TOURNAMENT ARTS OF RULE IN LATE MEDIEVAL SCOTLAND. By LOUISE OLGA FRADENBURG. University of Wisconsin Press, 1991. 390pp, ill. ISBN 0-299-12954-3. Reviewed by Sandra Billington.

GEORGE EWART EVANS. By GARETH WILLIAMS. Writers of Wales Series, University of Wales Press, Cardiff, 1991. 93pp. £3.50. Reviewed by Trefor M. Owen.     

An English Tree-Ring Chronology,A.D. 404–1216

AN 813-YEAR OAK CHRONOLOGY, A.D. 404–1216, is presented. Its construction has taken three years because of the difficulty of finding suitable Saxon timbers and the need to test the reliability of the dating. Although based on only a few timbers for the period c. A.D. 700, it can be used to date Saxon and medieval timbers whilst more material is found to consolidate that section of the chronology.     

The role of canids in ritual and domestic contexts: new ancient DNA insights from complex hunter–gatherer sites in prehistoric Central California

This study explores the interrelationship between the genus Canis and hunter–gatherers through a case study of prehistoric Native Americans in the San Francisco Bay-Sacramento Delta area. A distinctive aspect of the region's prehistoric record is the interment of canids, variously classified as coyotes, dogs, and wolves. Since these species are difficult to distinguish based solely on morphology, ancient DNA analysis was employed to distinguish species. The DNA study results, the first on canids from archaeological sites in California, are entirely represented by domesticated dogs (including both interments and disarticulated samples from midden deposits). These results, buttressed by stable isotope analyses, provide new insight into the complex interrelationship between humans and canids in both ritual and prosaic contexts, and reveal a more prominent role for dogs than previously envisioned.