Intimate Extractions: Demand Dowry and Neoliberal Development in Dhaka,Bangladesh

Based on qualitative research on marital problems in Dhaka, this article uses the term ‘intimate extractions’ as a lens to explain the relationship between escalating levels of demand dowry and neoliberal development in Bangladesh. Evidence from across Bangladesh shows that demands for cash made by husbands, accompanied by threats of violence or divorce, are on the rise. Building on gendered theories of contemporary capitalist development and feminist analysis of microcredit, the article argues that demand dowry should be understood within the current context of rapid economic development in Bangladesh. High levels of precarity, lack of state welfare and the need for cash for businesses, labour migration, education and healthcare mean that people from all social classes are in perpetual need of money. Marriage problems and the practice of demand dowry present opportunities for husbands to extract money from wives and their families. Embedded in the intimate relationship of marriage, demand dowry can therefore be understood as a ‘conversion’, a process in which intimate relationships are converted into projects of capital accumulation, thus becoming an ‘intimate extraction’.     

High-temperature performance of two-layered ceramics and the implications for Roman crucibles

Roman metalworking crucibles are frequently characterized by an extra outer layer of clay, applied to a pre-formed vessel. Three-point bending and standardized dead-weight loading tests were conducted to determine the advantages offered by the extra outer layer. Deformation and fracture behaviour, at temperatures up to 1100°C, of two-layer, monolithic and tempered-monolithic briquettes were compared. Measurements indicated that the two-layer briquettes were more resistant to fracture at high temperatures: > 850°C they showed more extensive plastically deformed regions than monolithic briquettes. The influence of temper was consistent with previous results: tempering caused quasi-stable fracture and reduced fracture strength. The results suggest extra outer layers assisted in preventing catastrophic failure.     

Ecological idealism and the peasant village

Alan R. Beals. Village Life in South India: Cultural Design and Environmental Variation. Chicago: Aldine Publishing Co., 1974. 189 pp. Figures, illustrations, suggested reading, and index. $7.50 (cloth), $2.95 (paper).     

Treponematosis in Pre-Columbian Jamaica: a biocultural approach to the human cranium found in Bull Savannah

The first inhabitants of Jamaica are now generally referred to as Taínos. It is likely that they arrived in the island after about 650 AD and were extinct by the end of the 16th century. In 1968, during the exploration of a small cave in Bull Savannah, St. Elizabeth parish, Dr. James Lee found two skulls, teeth, bones, and pottery. The aim of this work is to interpret in a biocultural perspective the one cranium with pathological lesions, such as caries sicca. This adult individual had an artificially modified cranium, a cultural practice common among Taínos, which was studied macroscopically and by radiological and computerized tomography. The radiocarbon dates, obtained by AMS, point to the 10th–11th centuries AD and the stable isotopes analysis revealed either the ingestion of a mixed C3/C4 plant diet or an extensive intake of marine resources, the former being more likely. This is the first cranium to be found in Jamaica with evidence of Pre-Columbian treponematosis, most probably syphilis, which has also been demonstrated in a few cases elsewhere in the Caribbean region. This finding agrees with the ethnohistorical narrative, according to which syphilis existed among the native population, who used plant extracts to treat the disease. This paper contributes to our knowledge about the Taínos and the history of treponematosis in the Americas.