Uncommon Ground: Holism and the Future of Anthropology

Anthropology has long been a contested field with roots in both scientific and humanistic discourse. The “four-field” approach in American anthropology has been used by some as a means of suppressing conflict and enforcing a false sense of unity. While critiques of the four-field approach are warranted, in fact holism represents anthropology's greatest strength. Anthropology gains a competitive advantage over other disciplines in its ability to combine biological and cultural approaches. Moreover, the four-field model, while historically contingent, is well suited to the institutional and political realities of the American academy, especially the public research university.     

Mobile Peoples: Pastoralists and Herders at the Beginning of the 21st Century

Bruce Trigger's and Adam Smith's comparative studies of state-level societies provide new theoretical approaches and are important components in a resurgence of explicit comparative analysis of early states by archaeologists. Trigger presents a massive systematic comparison of seven ancient states on an unusually large number of themes, whereas Smith carries out more intensive comparisons of a smaller sample on more limited themes. These well-written works make significant contributions to a number of areas, including empirical analysis, theory, and comparative methods.     

MODELLING OF STRUCTURAL ACCELERATIONS AND APPLICATION TO CONTROLLER DESIGN

In this paper a method for the identification of simplified linear models for building structures is applied to the case when acceleration, rather than displacement, is measured. A frame from benchmark structural controller studies is simulated, and from the input-output data of these simulations, simplified models for the acceleration response of the frame are obtained that have far fewer degrees of freedom. One of these simplified models is used to design a controller, which is tested using an evaluation model from the benchmark controller studies and found to be effective.     

THE GEOGRAPHIC IMPLICATIONS OF SCHOOL BOARD REFORM IN QUEBEC

This paper is based on a recent decision of the Supreme Court of Canada that will allow the Province of Quebec to restructure the system of education, from one based on religious affiliation to one based on language of instruction. The paper sets forth a number of geographic implications of such a reform, including the historic, demographic, linguistic, political, and territorial aspects of the Education Act of Quebec, known as Bill 107. While the change to linguistic-based boards is applauded, there is no clear understanding of what the new map of school board territories will look like, yet the implications of this decision are far-reaching.
Cet article est basé sur une récente décision prise par la Cour suprême du Canada qui permettra au Gouvernement du Québec de restructurer le système d'éducation, c'est-à-dire de passer d'un système fondé^- sur l'appartenance religieuse à un système fondé sur la langue d'enseignement. L'article démontre quelques une des répercussions géographiques d'une telle réforme, en plus des aspects historiques, démographiques, linguistiques, politiques et territoriaux de la Loi sur l'instruction publique du Québec ou Loi 107. Même si la mise sur pied de commissions administratives à caractère linguistique est approuvée, l'élaboration de la nouvelle carte des territoires desservis par chacune des commissions scolaires demeure ambigue, mais le retentissement de cette décision est d'une portée considérable.     

AN INVESTIGATION OF THE PROVENANCE OF THE ROMAN AMPHORA CARGO FROM THE PLEMMIRIO B SHIPWRECK

Eighty-six Roman amphora sherds from the Plemmirio B shipwreck, off Sicily, have been analysed by neutron activation analysis. A large group representative of the amphora cargo, mainly of forms Africana 1 and Africana 2A (from the area of modern Tunisia), was subsequently defined. No differences between Africana 1 and Africana 2A samples were observed, thus implying a similar origin for both forms. The provenance of this cargo group was then investigated by comparison with a Roman amphora kiln data base. After elimination of the more mobile elements it was shown that the cargo amphorae were more likely to have been manufactured at kilns around Sullecthum rather than Leptis Minor. The analytical conclusions are thoroughly consistent with the known archaeological information.     

URANIUM VARIATIONS IN A DATED FOSSIL BONE SERIES FROM OLDUVAI GORGE,TANZANIA

Of twelve elements analyzed in a series of bovid teeth from the Olduvai Gorge, uranium is the only element which varies appreciably with the ages of the samples. Uranium concentrations increase at first, then decrease with increasing age, and therefore cannot be used by themselves to obtain absolute or even relative ages of the samples. A model accounting for the behaviour of uranium is proposed in which uranium is absorbed in the samples during the decay of organic material and is lost after this decay ceases. If one accounts for uranium losses, the concentrations of uranium and its decay products may be used to accurately date skeletal material from the Olduvai gorge.     

WHY PHOTOGRAPHY MATTERS TO THE THEORY OF HISTORY

Georges Didi-Huberman's study is concerned with epistemological and ethical questions that arise from visual representations of the Shoah, while Michael Fried's is concerned with the ontological possibilities explored by contemporary art photography. The books have two things in common: an argument against postmodern skepticism, and an insistence that photography has become a field in which questions of history, truth, and authenticity are being explored with particular acuity. Rather than reject even the possibility that photographs have something to tell us about the Shoah, Didi-Huberman shows that they can offer important insights into the difficulties and the possibilities of apprehending some aspects of the past.
Fried shows that contemporary photographic work has taken on the ambitions of high modernism by accepting the challenge of "to-be-seenness." Photography as a "historical practice" does not escape from the difficulties of evidence and of the "constructed" nature of historical understanding; photography functions neither as a pure trace of the past, nor as a mere invitation to spectacle.     

The Savage Science: Sigmund Freud,Psychoanalysis, and the History of Religion

This article analyzes how Freud takes issue with the prioritization of the present over and above the historical past. Significantly, Freud's understanding of history is closely related to his interest in Christianity's historical dependence on Jewish antiquity. He emphasizes the common sources of both religions: both are shaped by the experience of guilt. Christianity, however, relegates the historical past to the realm of the “old Adam.” According to Freud, Jewish culture, by contrast, revolves around the commemoration of a “savage” (i.e. pre‐modern) past. This article thus focuses on how Freud combines his analysis of onto‐genesis (in his psychoanalytical case studies) with a discussion of phylogeny. The manifestation of psychic illness gives body to the unconscious remembrance of phylogenetic history. Thanks to religious and literary documents an irrational past has been put down in writing. According to Freud, this characterizes their historical truth value.