Combating coloniality: the cultural policy of post-colonialism

The distinguishing characteristic of cultural policy in countries characterized by a legacy of coloniality is the importance of the identity formation and the politics that are involved in formulating its definition. At root, coloniality is an experience involving dominating influence by a stronger power over a subject state. However, this is not just a matter of external governance or economic dependency, but of a cultural dominance that creates an asymmetrical relationship between the ‘center’ and the ‘periphery,’ between the ruling ‘hegemon’ and the marginalized ‘other.’ In these circumstances, what constitutes an “authentic” culture, and how this informs national identity, is a central political and social concern.     

Of a bread-loaf missile: the shaming of Brooklyn’s 13th Regiment of the National Guard during the Spanish–American War

The Spanish–American War constituted a pressure point in American military history. The citizen-soldier tradition in the United States—a tradition based on a reliance on state militias rather than a large standing army—was tested as the country scrambled to provide a fighting force to support its growing imperial ambition. When Brooklyn’s 13th Regiment of the National Guard was ordered to camp at the beginning of May 1898, roughly half the men answered the call. Most of the guardsmen did not object to serving but only wished to do so within their regiment. As a result, the regiment was subjected to rough music, pelted by half a loaf of bread, and disbanded. Over time, however, the tables turned, with the regiment ultimately being resurrected and redeemed and the governor and the adjutant general who had disbanded the regiment being ridiculed and discarded. The case of Brooklyn’s 13th Regiment reveals that the alignment of national and state allegiances was neither straightforward nor without casualty as the country entered the age of imperialism.     

Age‐differentiated impact of land appropriation and resettlement on landless farmers: a case study of Xinghua village,China

Land appropriation and subsequent resettlement of rural inhabitants are central to urbanisation in China. Often, the result is the impoverishment of landless farmers, who are a principal source of social unrest in the country. In the literature, landless farmers are often wrongly assumed to be a homogeneous group. In contrast, this paper presents the age‐differentiated experiences of land appropriation and resettlement among farmers. Using the case study of Xinghua village in China, and by reference to data collected via surveys and interviews, we show that even within a single community, there can be significant age‐related differences in terms of compensation, livelihood changes, income, living conditions, and satisfaction. Older farmers tend to receive more compensation, and the negative impact of land appropriation is felt most acutely by middle‐aged farmers. Viewed from a broader theoretical perspective, this study demonstrates the importance of understanding the impact of land appropriation and resettlement and shows how this impact is distributed unevenly across the affected communities.     

Management and the Free-Standing Company: The New Zealand and Australia Land Company c. 1866–1900

The scholarly reappraisal of the British imperial system as the ‘British World’ has given scholars the opportunity to examine anew the financial, commercial and industrial ties which held the empire together. This article examines the experience of one such tie, the New Zealand and Australian Land Company, a Scottish-based agricultural and land company which operated in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Australasia. This company contributed to the colonies' economic development directly, opening up new farming lands and initiating wool and protein exports, as well as influencing the development of the communities which grew up around its stations and factories. The article details the strategic development of the company until c. 1900 in the wider context of Australia and New Zealand's economic development, demonstrating that studying the evolution of commercial organisations can contribute to the wider debate around the role of British capital in development.     

Radiocarbon reservoir effects in human bone collagen from northern Iceland

Human bone collagen from a series of Icelandic human pagan graves was radiocarbon (¹⁴C) dated to aid understanding of early settlement (landnám) chronologies in northern Iceland. These individuals potentially consumed marine protein. The ¹⁴C age of samples containing marine carbon requires a correction for the marine ¹⁴C reservoir effect. The proportion of non-terrestrial sample carbon was quantified via measurement of carbon stable isotopes (δ¹³C) using a simple mixing model, based on δ¹³C measurements of archaeofaunal samples. Non-terrestrial carbon was also quantified in six pig bones from the archaeofaunal dataset. Assuming all non-terrestrial carbon in human and pig bone collagen was marine-derived, calibrated age ranges calculated using a mixed IntCal09/Marine09 calibration curve were consistent with an early settlement date close to landnám, but several samples returned pre-landnám age ranges. Measurements of nitrogen stable isotopes (δ¹⁵N) strongly suggest that many of the human bone collagen samples contain freshwater diet-derived carbon. Icelandic freshwater systems frequently display large freshwater ¹⁴C reservoir effects, of the order of 10,000 ¹⁴C years, and we suggest that the presence of freshwater carbon is responsible for the anomalously early ages within our dataset. In pig samples, the majority of non-terrestrial carbon is freshwater in origin, but in human samples the proportion of freshwater carbon is within the error of the marine component (±10%). This presents a major obstacle to assessing temporal patterns in the ages of human remains from sampled graves, although the majority of grave ages are within the same, broad, calibrated range.     

Pilgrimage as costly signal: Religiously motivated cooperation in Chaco and Nasca

Religiously motivated cooperation in the form of pilgrimage is a neglected element in discussions of the dynamics of cooperative behavior among humans. In this paper, we invoke costly signaling theory to propose how pilgrimage centers emerge in some contexts. On one hand, as has been suggested by other scholars, monumental centers are costly signals of the authority and influence of competing centers’ leadership, which can include the leaders’ influence over supernatural forces. We argue that equally important is the pilgrimage itself, which serves as a costly signal of the pilgrims’ commitment to the religious system and the beliefs and values associated with it; this in turn facilitates cooperation and other prosocial behaviors among pilgrims who otherwise might be strangers. To explore the utility of this approach to pilgrimage, we compare Chaco Canyon in the US Southwest and Cahuachi in the Nasca region of Peru, two prestate sociocultural settings in which pilgrimage was an important component in maintaining cooperation, group cohesion, and identity. While specific patterns are distinct in each society, we argue that pilgrimage had a significant impact in the development of both prosocial behavior and religious leadership in Chaco and Nasca.     

Current research on smoking pipe residues

This paper presents research into the identification of tobacco residues in ancient smoking pipes. Two techniques have been used so far: gas chromatography/mass spectroscopy (GC/MS), and Raman microscopy. GC/MS has been used successful in the past by the author to identify ancient tobacco residues, and the results of this round of analysis support prior research. Raman microscopy, which has the advantage of working on dry samples without solvents, was not successful. It appears that combustion products overwhelm any useful signal that would identify the substance smoked. We are pursuing the use of Raman in non-combusted samples.