Women's Talk and the Colonial State: The Wylde Scandal, 1831–1833

Between 1831 and 1833 the Chief Justice of the Cape Colony, Sir John Wylde, was involved in a scandal surrounding anonymous accusations of incest resulting from the alleged pregnancy of his unmarried daughter. The rumours led to an official inquiry by the secretary of state. The resulting political crisis took place against a background of social tension over impending slave emancipation. The records of the inquiry, together with contemporary comment, form the basis for a discussion of how gender roles, gossip and a separation between public and private spheres informed the operation of Cape colonial politics and society.     

Whose Economy for Whose Culture? Moving Beyond Oppositional Talk in European Debate about Economy and Culture

This paper provides an overview of the economy-culture debate as currently rehearsed within European urban and regional change circles, explores some of the key theoretical inadequacies of this debate and outlines and illustrates one possible way of moving debate forward. The paper begins by identifying the different ways in which economy and culture, and economy-culture articulations, are thought about within this debate and by arguing that what purports to be a debate about articulation collapses in practice into the respective privileging of either culture or economy. Subsequently, after a critique of the "economy-culture as differential logics" argument, we forward what we consider to be the minimal conditions for conjoining economy and culture theoretically. These entail according economy and culture equivalent conceptual standing, centring meaning and seeing meaning and practice as conceptually inseparable. We then illustrate this approach at the level of particularities, using a range of examples that span commodities, "productive" practices and processes of consumption and exchange.     

Carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analysis of hunter–gatherers from the Coleman site,a Late Prehistoric cemetery in Central Texas

We report on a stable isotopic analysis of 17 hunter–gatherer burials from the Coleman site (41BX568), a Late Prehistoric Toyah Interval (700–350 years BP) occupation in Texas. Prior to our analysis, isotopic research on Toyah populations in Central Texas was represented by a single burial at site 41BX677. That burial showed an isotopic pattern suggestive of a diet heavily focused on CAM/C₄ plants and C₄ fauna. Coleman burials show a different pattern. While interpretations are complicated by high variability in the isotopic signatures of children and by differences in male and female diets possibly related to mate exchange, the 11 adult and adolescent burials at Coleman show a diet focused on C₃ fauna and the use of both C₃ and CAM/C₄ plants. The moderate CAM/C₄ plant use is a radical departure from a trend of increasing C₃ plant use that characterized hunter–gatherers in this region for at least 6200 years prior to the start of the Toyah Interval. Protein sources among Coleman adults probably centered on deer, but also included high nitrogen (δ¹⁵N) animals, such as fish. Males seem to have differential access to these high nitrogen sources. Two different isotopic patterns, one reflecting a focus on C₃ fauna and moderate use of CAM/C₄ plants, and a second reflecting C₄ fauna and extensive use of CAM/C₄ plants, are represented during Toyah. While interpretations are complicated by small sample sizes, these two patterns could simply reflect temporal differences, different acquisition strategies based on availability, or hint at different subsistence strategies. It may also be the case that the 41BX677 individual represents an immigrant into the Central Texas region, one with a different isotopic history.     

REVIEW

Mogens Müller, Kirkens f?rste Bibel — Hebraica sive Graeca Veritas? Forlaget ANIS, Frederiksberg 1994, 152 pp.

Norman K. Gottwald, The Hebrew Bible in Its Social World and in Ours. The Society of Biblical Literature Semeia Studies. Scholars Press, Atlanta, Georgia 1993, 29 + 425 pp.     

Cultural sustainability as a strategy for the survival of museums and libraries

Cultural sustainability has become a growing priority within sustainable development agendas, and is now often depicted as a fourth pillar, equal to social, economic, and environmental concerns. Museums and libraries play a unique role within cultural sustainability by preserving their communities’ heritage. However, sustainability policy and research within these sectors still tends to focus on the social, economic, and environmental pillars. This article provides a critique of sustainability policy and research for museums and libraries. It argues that more explicit coverage of cultural sustainability is required to not only improve the contributions of museums and libraries to cultural sustainability, but also to provide an increased understanding and appreciation of the value of these institutions necessary for their continued survival.