An improved PCR method for endogenous DNA retrieval in contaminated Neandertal samples based on the use of blocking primers

Neandertal skeletal remains are usually contaminated with modern human DNA derived from handling and washing of the specimens during excavation. Despite the fact that the distinct Neandertal haplotypes allow the design of specific primer pairs, for instance in most of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) hypervariable region 1 (HVR1), the human contaminants can often outnumber the endogenous DNA, thus preventing a successful retrieval of Neandertal sequences. We have developed a novel PCR method, based on the use of blocking primers that preferentially bind to modern human contaminant DNA and block their amplification, and greatly improve the efficiency of Neandertal DNA retrieval. We tested the method in four El Sidrón Neandertal samples (two teeth and two bone fragments) with different contamination levels and taphonomic conditions, and we have been able to significantly increase the Neandertal yield from figures around 25.23% (5–69.6%) up to 90.18% (75.3–100%).     

Arsenic in Danish and Swedish Mesolithic and Neolithic human bones – diet or diagenesis?

Arsenic has previously been measured in a bone sample of a c. 5-year-old Mesolithic child from Nivaagaard in Denmark yielding an anomalously high value of 13 μg/g. In the present work we show that other individuals at a nearby site also exhibit elevated arsenic levels, whereas individuals from other Mesolithic sites in Denmark are found to have quite low As-concentrations. Several attempts to reveal the source of the arsenic are reported: A railway track near the site, where the railway sleepers were suspected to have been impregnated with As leading to transport or diffusion of As into the adjacent soil; Several food items, the remains of which were found at the site, and one food item not preserved in the excavation, i.e. seaweed. Finally, it is shown that the most likely explanation of the elevated arsenic levels in human bones at Nivaa is diagenesis.     

Living Places or Animated Objects? Sámi Sacrificial Places with Metal Objects and Their South Scandinavian Parallels

Abstract

The article takes its point of departure in 12 Sámi sacrificial places from northern Sweden and Norway. It is argued that the sites with metal objects of the ninth to fourteenth centuries in a number of ways are comparable to acts of deposition in south Scandinavia. These Viking Age depositions consisted of partly the same types of artefacts, took place on the shores of wetlands with sacral names and were in use in the same time period as the Sámi sacrificial places. The similarities and differences between the two traditions are discussed, focusing on some possible links between aspects of animistic world views and biographical perspectives on artefacts. This opens up the possibility that not only the Sámi, but even the Old Norse world views contained elements of animistic perspectives. It is claimed that the two traditions reflect partially parallel ways of handling the landscape and dealing with objects among the Sámi of Øvre Norrland and the Norse population of south Scandinavia.     

On morel's épilepsie larvee: The first Danish epileptologist Frederik hallager's opposition in 1884 against morel's psychical epileptic Equivalents*

Abstract

In 1860 B.A. Morel published some cases of masked epilepsy, i.e., paroxysmal behaviour disturbances or “epileptic equivalents”;. The majority behaved criminally. Hughlings Jackson opposed and Hallager showed that all the cases related later as épilepsie larvée could be explained as postepileptic attacks, general paralysis, paradoxical normalization, schizophrenia, mania and otherwise. True criminal behaviour was exeptional. The present author agreed. There is no need for épilepsie larvée. It is discussed whether Blumer's recent “Paroxystic neurobehaviour disorder”; will revive “Morel's disorder”;.     

Working gender after crisis: partnerships and disconnections in Sri Lanka after the Indian Ocean tsunami

This article focuses on how northern non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and their partners, community-based organizations (CBOs), are ‘working’ gender after a crisis. It explores the relationship between one NGO aiming to mainstream gender and a women's CBO in a village in southern Sri Lanka after the 2004 tsunami. The gender policies of the NGO and how the CBO has co-opted these policies are analysed in terms of discourse, interdependence, power and performance. Structural and individual challenges for working gender in post-crisis situations are analyzed and the constraints for making deep reaching changes that can alter gender relations are identified. Because of differences in the conceptualization and implementation of gender policies and practices, the CBO has manoeuvred to maintain its own interests, while the NGO has experienced disconnections in working gender between organizational levels and locations of implementation. In conclusion, it is argued that for changes to take place, knowledge production on gender needs to be locally situated and sensitive to the structural conditions and power relations with which organizations and communities engage.