Stable isotope analysis of the Inca mummy from Nevado de Chuscha (Salta,Argentina)*

This paper presents the carbon (¹³C/¹²C), nitrogen (¹⁵N/¹⁴N), oxygen (¹⁸O/¹⁶O), hydrogen (²H/¹H) and sulfur (³⁴S/³²S) stable isotope values measured in the hair of a female individual from north-western Argentina. The analysis of segments of this tissue allows for the recording of the diet and migratory changes with a short time resolution. The sample is from a mummified young female individual discovered in Chuscha mount, Salta province. It was found at more than 5000 masl, in a mountain sanctuary of the Inca expansion (capacochas). The paper discusses the paleodiet and mobility patterns of this individual in the period before her death, focusing on the isotopic variations in a limited time scale. The results indicate that the individual moved from a different region to the place where she was sacrificed. Furthermore, in the last year the individual was alive, a shift in the isotopic composition of the food consumed is detected: a variation in the importance of C₄ over C₃ resources is evident. The results are compared with the isotopic estimations for other children and young people recovered in archaeological contexts associated with capacochas to infer variability in the geographical trajectories covered during their last months of life.     

Portable Steam Engines and Traction Engines and Their Use in Rural Areas: The Case of Lezíria Ribatejana,Portugal

In the second half of the 19th century, the area known as Lezíria, in Portugal, started to use portable steam and traction engines in agricultural production. Out of more than a hundred original examples, all of them manufactured in England, little more than a dozen survive today, with different levels of preservation. This article studies these for the first time through an archaeological perspective, identifying their use and importance in different agricultural activities in the production of goods such as olive oil.     

The Ins and Outs of Death in the Iron Age: Complex Funerary Treatments at Broxmouth Hillfort,East Lothian

Evidence for Iron Age funerary treatments remains sporadic across Britain and formal cemeteries are especially elusive. One important exception is Broxmouth hillfort, East Lothian, excavated during the late 1970s but not yet published. New analysis of the human remains from Broxmouth provides evidence for three distinct populations: a formal cemetery outside the hillfort, isolated graves within the ramparts, and a scatter of disarticulated fragments from a range of domestic and midden contexts. The latter group in particular provides significant evidence for violent trauma; isotopic evidence suggests that they may be the remains of outsiders. Together the human remains shed light on complex and changing attitudes to death and the human body in Iron Age Britain. The material from Broxmouth is considered in the light of emerging evidence for fluid and pluralistic treatments of the dead in the Iron Age of south‐east Scotland.     

Sur l'expertise anthropologique territoires et identités indigènes au Brésil

Is it possible for an anthropologist to decide whether an individual or a collectivity can or cannot be characterized as « indigenous », and then proceed to establish the limits of the territory which should be assigned (or recognized) by the state? Does his role as a scientist furnish him with the conceptual and methodological instruments necessary for such a task? In epistemological and ethical terms, is this something which he should endeavour to do? The purpose of this paper is to discuss how these questions are being put to Brazilian anthropologists since the 1980s. Torn between an « indianist » and an « indigenist » discourse, between romanticism and political mediation, the anthropologist must define an appropriate posture for dealing with policy-making; one which will simultaneously safeguard the scientific quality of his work while addressing the specific demands of each situation.     

South Africa in world development: Prospects for a human economy (Respond to this article at http://www.therai.org.uk/at/debate)

South Africa was once notorious for an extreme system of racial inequality known as apartheid. It is still a world leader in economic inequality, but the racial situation is confused. In the meantime something like apartheid has become universal. The Southern African regional economy has some features that point to a more humane alternative to unequal society, to a “human economy”. The world needs a new free trade movement that would begin to dismantle the institutions of national privilege and insist on movement as a human right.     

Asian Textiles in the Carreira da Índia: Portuguese Trade,Consumption and Taste, 1500–1700

This article focuses on the textile trade between Asia and Portugal in the early modern period. It highlights the pivotal role that Portugal played in the distribution of Asian manufactures across Europe during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, before England and Holland set up large trading companies. It further examines the nature of Asian textile imports in Portugal, assessing their impact on consumption patterns, local manufacturing and shifts in taste.     

‘One man,one vote; one woman,one throat’: Women in New York city politics, 1890–1910

This essay challenges the assumption that women did not go into politics until they had the right to vote. In New York City at least, it was the other way around. Motivated by the municipal reform movement of the 1890s which sought to defeat Democratic Tammany Hall, women steadily took on more responsibility for electing good men to office, through meetings, canvassing and the production of literature. They did so both through their own non‐partisan reform organization and in highly partisan women's Republican Clubs. Proliferating in the 1890s, Republican women's clubs provided a steady stream of workers to elect Republican candidates, even when they opposed reformers. The Democratic Party was slow to organize women, not doing so seriously until after New York women got suffrage in 1917. However, some Democratic women organized their own clubs, which endorsed Tammany Hall candidates but did not work for them intensively.