Strontium isotopic reconstruction of the composition of an urban free black population from the 19th century United States

The Industrial Revolution in the United States had a tremendous impact on society, altering not only economics but also the distribution of it population. It was also during this period that increasing numbers of African Americans gained their freedom from slavery. Released from overt bondage, free African Americans sought the opportunities denied to them for over two centuries, initiating a large scale movement of people to the burgeoning urban centers of industry. The individuals interred in the Newburgh Colored Burial Ground (1830–1870) represent one small segment of this process. Strontium isotopic analyses are utilized in order to discuss the demographic composition of Newburgh’s free black population during this time period. In particular, we examine the relative contribution of migration and natural increase, and whether there are significant sex-specific differences in the formation of the population. The results suggest that Newburgh’s free black population was composed predominantly of individuals born in the immediate region. Additionally, there were a greater percentage of non-local males than females. While historical data suggests that females had greater job opportunities in the north relative to males, the growing industrial economy Newburgh may very well have fostered greater male mobility.     

Shelly fauna from the Cambrian (Miaolingian,Guzhangian) Shannon Formation and the SPICE event in the Amadeus Basin,Northern Territory

Smith, P.M., Brock, G.A. & Paterson J.R. 20 September 2019. Shelly fauna from the Cambrian (Miaolingian, Guzhangian) Shannon Formation and the SPICE event in the Amadeus Basin, Northern Territory. Alcheringa 44, 1–24. ISSN 0311-5518

A low-diversity assemblage of linguliformean brachiopods, hyoliths, molluscs, bradoriid arthropods and echinoderms (ten taxa in total) is documented from the upper Shannon Formation (Cambrian, Miaolingian, Guzhangian; Mindyallan) in the Ross River Syncline and Todd River Anticline area, NE Amadeus Basin, central Australia. Taxa described include: the linguliformean brachiopods Treptotreta jucunda Henderson & MacKinnon, 1981, Opisthotreta sp., Stittia? sp., an undetermined acrotretid and an undetermined linguloid; the molluscs Kobayashiella? heritagensis Webers, Pojeta & Yochelson, 1992 (a paragastropod), and Apoptopegma joyceae sp. nov. (a rostroconch); the bradoriid Mongolitubulus sp.; Hyolithida gen. et sp. indet.; and isolated echinoderm plates. All fauna (including previously documented trilobites) from the upper Shannon Formation disappear at the beginning of a ～5‰ positive shift in δ¹³C, identified as the Steptoean Positive Isotopic Carbon Excursion (SPICE). Despite previous links between SPICE and a global extinction, as well as the disappearance of all faunal elements in the uppermost Shannon Formation, certain taxa reported herein range through the event elsewhere in the world. The occurrence of Treptotreta jucunda and Kobayashiella? heritagensis in younger (Furongian) deposits indicates these species survived the SPICE extinction event. This study advocates for more systematic and comprehensive sampling through stratigraphic intervals where the SPICE event occurs, especially for range data of complete faunas (rather than individual taxonomic groups), to facilitate a more complete picture of diversity trends through this important phase.

P.M. Smith* [patrick.smith@austmus.gov.au], Palaeontology Department, Australian Museum Research Institute, Sydney, New South Wales, 2010, Australia; G.A. Brock [glenn.brock@mq.edu.au], Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales, 2109, Australia. J.R. Paterson [jpater20@une.edu.au], Palaeoscience Research Centre, School of Environmental and Rural Science, University of New England, Armidale, New South Wales, 2351, Australia. *Also affiliated with: Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales, 2109, Australia.     

Sovereignty,mobility, and political cartographies in Late Bronze Age southern Caucasia

This article draws on archaeological data from Late Bronze Age (LBA, ca. 1550–1150 BC) fortress, shrine, cemetery, and residential sites in Armenia to challenge long-held assumptions about the potential for mobile-pastoral groups to develop and sustain complex polities. The past two decades of research by Project ArAGATS (the Armenian–American collaboration for the Archaeology and Geography of Ancient Transcaucasian Societies) has demonstrated that LBA sovereignty emerged not through the sociopolitical coalescence of settled farming villages, but through the actions of hierarchically organized, mobile pastoralists. Post-processual archaeology helped focus discussions of ancient political life on the contingent nature of authority and the processes through which competing factions and stakeholders achieve political association. However, centuries of interpretive marginalization of nomadic peoples combined with deterministic notions regarding subsistence and settlement practices of mobile pastoralists have, until recently, hindered a broader anthropological consideration of the potential pathways to sovereignty available to more mobile societies. Drawing on a range of datasets from LBA fortresses, shrines, cemeteries, and ephemeral residential complexes, our study examines the essential factors contributing to the emergence and maintenance of complex polities among mobile pastoralists in the southern Caucasus, societies that were intimately associated—politically, economically, and ritually—with hill-top fortresses. This study of political association in LBA Armenia sheds light on the internal politics of nomadic communities and offers a unique opportunity to bring the South Caucasus into the comparitive study of ancient complex polities.     

IDENTITIES AND URBAN SOCIAL SPACES IN LITTLE TOKYO,LOS ANGELES: JAPANESE AMERICANS IN TWO ETHNO‐SPIRITUAL COMMUNITIES

Ethnic identities are expressed and articulated in particular places. These mutable identities are crucial sources of meaning in the lives of social actors. This article seeks to elucidate just how the contexts of specific institutions in an urban enclave will impact upon patterns of conflict and cooperation among different subgroups practising two religious traditions. Historical discourses of ethnic community and ‘race’, shifts in migration patterns and the changing nature of the Little Tokyo enclave provide the formative patterns of social spaces, in which ethnic actors seek to create lives of spiritual and material meaning and security. Barth's concept of the social organization of cultural difference encourages analysis of ethnic identities as a dynamic and mutable enterprise. Because the maintenance of boundaries is crucial to identities, the manner in which a group seeks to maintain difference is intermeshed with the social terrain of particular places. Through qualitative methods of semi‐structured and informal interviews and participant observations, this project engages Japanese American identities within the context of two religious communities in an urban enclave. Fieldwork was conducted in two institutions, a Protestant church and a Buddhist temple, with the aim of exploring how Japanese American identities are expressed and (re)negotiated within different ethno‐spiritual communities. Such communities are fundamental to the expression of ethnic identities, and to the emotional lives of worshippers, particularly seniors and new immigrants.