<Emphasis Type="Italic">Corrales de Indios</Emphasis> (Lithic Structures) in Tandilia,Argentina: A Global Study

In the central-southeastern area of Buenos Aires Province, Argentina, lies a mountainous area of low height in Tandilia that contains important outcrops of quartzite and granite. A large number of buildings are made of massive blocks of rock, some of them with a surface of over 1 ha. In addition to these completely artificial constructions are other structures that are semi-natural, having been made in places with special topographical characteristics and complemented with dry-stone walls. Scanty written documents allow us to attribute some of the constructions to an age before the permanent settlement of the Creole population. In the Tandilia Sierras these structures are commonly known as “corrales de indios” (Indian corrals). This designation involves a double prejudice with regard to function and cultural affiliation. Out of a total of 22 structures, we analyze a group of 4 that were excavated to use to review the written documents.     

Revolution,uprising, civil war: the conceptual dilemmas of 1956

There were from the very beginning two ways of conceptualising the events of 1956 in Hungary, labelling it as a revolution or a national uprising. There also emerged a third way of conceptual definition when what occurred in 1956 was named an anti-totalitarian movement. From the theoretical perspective of Begriffsgeschichte the Hungarian events of 1956 cannot simply be assumed under the notion of ‘revolution’, the term first applied to what took place in France in 1789, since it was not the kind of a forceful collective effort leading to an unknown future. The notion of ‘revolutio’ works better to describe the analytical meaning of the Hungarian anti-Soviet and anti-Communist disturbance. The reason has been that the main thrust of the Hungarian situation in 1956 was similar to the seventeenth-century English and the eighteenth-century American ‘revolutions’, to return definitively to a point of departure by regaining some of the formerly lost social and political liberties.     

External Ties and the Reduction of Knowledge Asymmetries among Clusters within Global Value Chains: The Case of the Ceramic Tile District of Castellon

Classical industrial districts' literature is not focused on the role played by external ties but gives more importance to the local districts' endogenous development. Global value chains connect clusters to other external agents through external linkages and constitute a framework to analyse the complex inter-linkages between clusters and other external agents. In the field of the external ties and the global value chain approach Academia is primarily focused on the ties which link clusters in developing nations to global markets, although global value chains also consider connections between clusters in similar activities and even when both are located in developed nations. Thus, external linkages are mainly performed by multinational enterprise (MNE) affiliates which play fundamental role of knowledge diffusers and absorbers in the process of knowledge exchange throughout global value chains. The work examines the process of knowledge exchange between clusters through external ties using the global value chain approach. For this purpose, empirical work is conducted with 22 face-to-face interviews to provide a case study about a leading cluster in the global ceramic tile industry. Results show that the basic knowledge to successfully compete is locally originated, although it can be complemented with global knowledge learnt or generated in other territories. MNE affiliates bridge structural holes through external ties and reduce knowledge asymmetries within global value chains. External ties on network-based governance chains exist, matter and affect clusters allowing upgrading even between developed nations.     

Rethinking Twentieth‐Century Guadalajara

This paper discusses the impact of the conference ‘Las Olvidadas: Gender and Women's History in Post‐Revolutionary Mexico’ that took place at Yale University in May 2001, into my own work on women's political mobilisations. It points out from where I departed and how it changed my perspective from women's history to gender history by focusing on women workers in the tortilla industry, a union cacicazgo (political bossism), civic culture, narratives, cultural memory and female political trajectories after the granting of women's suffrage in 1953 in Jalisco.     

The First Mallorcans: Prehistoric Colonization in the Western Mediterranean

The paper aims to elucidate the first human colonization of the western Mediterranean island of Mallorca by answering such questions as: What was the cultural identity of the first archaeologically identifiable human settlers? What was the chronology of colonization? Where did the colonizers originate? And what were their contacts during the initial phase of settlement? It is based on recently acquired chronological data and on a review of the classical sources. A precise chronology for the first colonization event is proposed, supporting the idea that human settlement on Mallorca started within the period 2350–2150 cal BC. The coast of Languedoc, between the rivers Vidourle and Rhône, is the most probable source region. Whether the first settlers were derived from an Early Bronze Age or a Late Copper Age mainland culture remains unresolved. A rapid initial population growth following initial colonization is proposed. The available evidence points to the development of an essentially isolated population on Mallorca, developing an autochthonous culture with only limited contacts to mainland regions.     

‘Spreading grace’ in post‐Soviet Russia (Respond to this article at http://www.therai.org.uk/at/debate)

The article addresses the revival of Russian Orthodoxy as a prominent domain in the lives of many Russians. The six authors are interested in the underlying question: What makes Russian Orthodoxy a relevent and modern source of morality and identity? The circumstances of this branch of Christianity significantly differ from what has been discussed in recent years as ‘the anthropology of Christianity’. The article proposes a thematic approach in order to connect the exploration of Russian Orthodoxy to the study of other denominations. A key‐area is the disctinctive articulation between continuity and change, which is crucial to the understanding of some branches of Protestantism as well.     

Gunnar Karlsson,Iceland's 1100 Years: The History of a Marginal Society, (London: Hurst, 2001). 418 pp. ISBN 1-85065-420-4.

This paper explores the role of personal networks and social capital in the assimilation of individuals into the elite of 18th‐century England. In it, I draw on the letterbooks of two merchants from north‐west England to assess the ways in which individuals accessed established networks and thus augmented their social status and business opportunities. In particular, I examine how networks were articulated, and consider their impact on both the social standing of the individual merchant and the construction of a shared culture amongst merchants. It is therefore possible to see business networking as an important counterpart to polite sociability in the construction of an expanded elite.     

Tracing the source of Late Neolithic Spondylus shell ornaments by stable isotope geochemistry and cathodoluminescence microscopy

Determination of the source of Spondylus objects is essential for the interpretation of Late Neolithic exchange systems and the social role of shell ornaments. We performed stable isotope analysis combined with cathodoluminescence microscopy study on ornaments (beads, bracelets) made of Spondylus shells excavated at the Aszód-Papi földek archaeological site in Hungary, to define their origin. For comparison Spondylus finds from Neolithic sites of Greece, modern Spondylus shells from the Aegean and the Adriatic, as well as fossil Spondylus and Ostrea shells from the Carpathian Basin were also examined. Oxygen isotope composition of Spondylus finds from Aszód ranges between ?1.9 and 2.1‰ and overlaps with the oxygen isotope range of shell objects from other Neolithic sites. Modern Spondylus shells from the Aegean and the Adriatic show overlapping δ¹⁸O values with one another and with the Neolithic objects; while recent shells of the Black Sea clearly are separate isotopically from the Mediterranean ones and most of archaeological artefacts. Spondylus shells from the Aszód site have Mediterranean origin; their source can be the Aegean or the Adriatic. Based on a former strontium isotope study the use of fossil Spondylus shells is excluded as raw material used for ornaments, however, in recent years the use of fossil shells was reintroduced. The shell ornaments from Aszód-Papi földek and the fossil oyster shells collected from the Carpathian Basin exhibit some overlapping oxygen isotope values; however, cathodoluminescence microscopy indicates that the Spondylus objects retained their original aragonite material. Diagenetic calcite, which occurs typically in the fossil shells, was not detected in the ornaments suggesting that the studied objects were made of recent shells. Calcitic parts observed in some Spondylus objects are not related to fossilisation.