Spain violated: foreign men in Spain's heartland

The process of colonial expansion in the sixteenth century fundamentally changed Spanish culture. Along with race, religion, ethnicity, status and honour, definitions of proper gendered and sexual behaviour changed as well. This article argues that Spanish communities and institutions came to define foreign men as examples of a subordinate and dangerous masculinity. The threat that foreign male sexuality posed to Spanish women and thus Spanish patriarchy – not only in the colonies, but within Spain itself – led institutions to prosecute foreign men. This essay draws on the language used in Inquisition and ecclesiastical court cases against foreign men as well as in Spanish literature of the period.     

New evidence on the introduction,cultivation and processing of hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) in southern Sweden

Subfossil remains of Cannabis sativa L. (hemp) have been found at Lindängelund in the region of Malmö, southern Sweden. These represent the earliest robust evidence so far for hemp retting in Scandinavia. Finds of seeds, stems and pollen of C. sativa from a waterlogged context on a settlement dating to the Roman Iron Age demonstrate that the plant was locally cultivated and processed during the 1st–2nd centuries AD. An introductory phase in Scandinavia is proposed (c. AD 1–400) during which the cultivation of hemp was apparently small scale and processing was probably carried out within settlements. In the succeeding centuries, c. AD 400–550 (the Migration Period), remains of hemp are mostly found in pollen records from lake sediments, and less frequently in the archaeological record. This could indicate that the process of hemp retting relocated from settlements to lakes shores where activity became larger in scale and more integrated with the prevailing agricultural system.     

Going to a home you have never been to: the return migration of Mexican and American-Mexican children

Focusing on children's experience-driven cosmologies revealed through interviews and survey responses, this article seeks to analyse and interpret the way children explain their migration from the USA to Mexico within the context of increases in both voluntary and forced return migration of Mexicans since 2005. It draws from representative samples of students (aged 9–16) enrolled in both public and private schools in several Mexican states, which are complemented by data drawn from in-depth interviews that complicate the sociological typologies about migration, motives for migration, and returnees. The goals of this article are as follows: (a) to illuminate and value children's own narratives about their migration experiences and (b) to discuss the contribution of diverse and apparently contradictory micro-, meso-, and macro-level approaches in studying migrant children.     

The Beauty of a Beam: The Continuity of Joan Torras’s Beam of Equal Strength in the Work of his Disciples—Guastavino,Gaudí, and Jujol

Joan Torras, professor of the strength of materials at the School of Architecture of Barcelona (1871–1910), considered the beam of equal strength not only as a structurally extremely efficient beam, but also as beautiful because of its ability to reflect the material’s strength. Torras’ structures have left their special mark on Barcelona and on the work of his most illustrious students: Rafael Guastavino in the United States published similar structures, but it was Antoni Gaudí and Josep Maria Jujol who transfigured them mimetically for Barcelona’s Park Güell and Tarragona’s Metropol Theatre, respectively. These examples will show how an expressive gesture can thoroughly transform a “technical form” into an “artistic form”, a fact that inevitably recalls the wisdom of classical Greek mimesis.     

Functionality and Morphology: Identifying <Emphasis Type="Italic">Si</Emphasis> Agricultural Tools from Among Hemudu Scapular Implements in Eastern China

Most Chinese archaeologists assume that the scapular implements used in the Hemudu culture in eastern China (7000–5000 BP) were the si agricultural implements (tools for breaking ground and turning soils over to assist in seeding) recorded in ancient Chinese literatures and, accordingly, assume the Hemudu culture was a farming society. However, ethnographic and historical literatures worldwide have suggested inconclusive functions for similar implements. We conducted a range of experiments under realistic conditions, including hide and plant processing and earth-working, followed by use-wear analysis, to identify the functions of the Hemudu scapular implements. The results suggest that no more than half of the implements were employed as si and that their penetrability and durability were rather limited. These findings help explain why Hemudu should not be labeled as a farming society. Through experimentation and use-wear analysis, we produced relatively large datasets that make a significant contribution to the identification of soil-derived wear patterns on bone tools. We also included quantitative measurements of soil properties to ensure similarities in use contexts between our experimental and archaeological analogies in order to reach reliable functional identifications. Our approaches and results, therefore, provided a solid base for re-evaluating previous research as well as building a standardized database of scientific value for future evaluation and adjustment, even if that future research is done in isolation and in different soil contexts.