The reluctant sovereign: New adventures of the US presidential Thanksgiving turkey

This article revisits the annual US presidential ritual of pardoning a Thanksgiving turkey, and explores the changes made to the procedures since 2003, when the author's Prickly Paradigm pamphlet on the issue was published. This includes such curious developments as the turkey being retired to Disneyland in Florida instead of a nearby petting zoo; the presidential contender Sarah Palin's attempt at pardoning her own turkey, a PR disaster with a twist; the new Virginia‐based movement to pardon a pig instead of a turkey; and President Obama's apparent reluctance in face of the ceremony — by now a spectacle so firmly implanted in US political life that it can no longer be dislodged. An extended interpretation is offered for just how all these developments relate to the deep‐seated American ambivalence towards the place of Native Americans in the nation's history, as well as towards the position of the US as a military superpower.     

Talking the talk: Debating debate in northern Afghanistan

The ethnographic focus of this article is on the ways in which Afghan families who lived in northern Pakistan as refugees are currently reflecting upon to their complex experiences of return to their country through a rich and complex culture of debate, as well as the deployment of other verbal and peformative skills, especially imitation. More broadly, it argues that the comparative study of situated practices of debate offers unique insights for the anthropological analysis of Islam, which an expanding body of work on the ways in which piety minded Muslims embody and cultivate ethical and moral values has thus far overlooked.     

WAGE AND MOBILITY EFFECTS OF LEGALIZATION: EVIDENCE FROM THE NEW IMMIGRANT SURVEY*

ABSTRACT Using New Immigrant Survey data, we identify immigrants who were unauthorized to work prior to obtaining Legal Permanent Resident status, and examine whether lacking legal status to work in the United States constrains employment outcomes of illegal immigrants. The data reveal no evidence of improved employment outcomes attributable to legal status, except among the high‐skilled. In light of evidence that unauthorized immigrants experienced increased wages as a result of receiving amnesty through the 1986 Immigration and Reform Control Act, we interpret the results as consistent with a reduced threat of employer sanctions combined with widespread availability of false work authorization documents.     

Collaboration between natural sciences and archaeology

Between 1983 and 1987 an intensive study of the castle of Kastelholm and its immediate surroundings has been undertaken. Medievalist archaeologists have, with the help of different natural sciences, tried to understand the natural environment and conditions of the medieval inhabitants of the castle and at the same time reconstruct its different building phases. The results of this cooperation between the natural sciences and archaeologists, including both the development of new methods and experience with various traditional methods, will be presented.     

Ad horatii sat. I 4 et I 9

The traditional interpretation of lines 75–6 is supported both by the immediate context and by the novel presentation of the Laudamia myth. Lines 73–8 show a balanced pattern of thought which demands that hnes 75–6 should refer to a neglect of sacrifice. Throughout the myth there is a strong connection between passion and disaster, while Protesilaus himself appears as a sacrificial victim. This new approach makes sense only if lines 75–6 refer to ceremonial negligence by Laudamia and Protesilaus.     

Sulfur and iron analyses of marine archaeological wood in shipwrecks from the Baltic Sea and Scandinavian waters

Analyses of marine archaeological wood from shipwrecks in the Baltic Sea area, Kronan, Riksnyckeln, Tattran, the Puck Bay Boat and the Ghost wreck, and at the Scandinavian West coast, the Göta wreck, Stora Sofia and the Viking shipwrecks of Skuldelev, show accumulation of sulfur compounds. The penetration profiles of sulfur and iron into the wood and the speciation of characteristic sulfur groups were evaluated by combining X-ray spectroscopic analyses, in particular S K-edge XANES (X-ray absorption near edge structure) and X-ray fluorescence, with ESCA and elemental analyses. The combined analyses support the hypothesis that hydrogen sulfide produced by sulfate-reducing bacteria reacts and accumulates at low iron concentration mainly as organically bound sulfur, which as in previous studies was found by X-ray spectro-microscopy to accumulate in lignin-rich parts of the wood cell walls. The presence of iron(II) ions from corroding iron promotes formation of pyrite and other iron(II) sulfides, which easily oxidise in aerobic conditions with high humidity. No significant differences in sulfur and iron accumulation were found in wood from shipwrecks in the east coast brackish water and the west coast seawater. Sediments from three wreck sites, the Göta wreck, Stora Sofia and Kronan, were analyzed to a depth of a few decimeters and showed especially at the Stora Sofia high sulfur concentrations, exceeding 3 mass%. S K-edge XANES analyses of the sediments showed mainly reduced forms of sulfur, in particular pyrite and iron(II) sulfides together with elemental sulfur.     

An Entrepreneurial University Strategy for Renewing a Declining Industrial City: The Norrköping Way

Norrköping, a small urban area formerly dependent upon old labour-intensive industries, has developed a knowledge-based renewal strategy inspired by ideas emanating from its superseded local economy. Using a longitudinal case study, this paper explicates the dynamics of change among a triple helix of university, industry and government actors that involved building consensus within the city and with its neighbouring city of Linköping. The keys to success have been cross-institutional entrepreneurship, aggregating regional and national resources to realize a unique, locally generated strategy rather than adopting the usual list of hot high-tech topics such as information technology, biotechnology or alternative energy, and striking a balance between intra-regional competition and collaboration in order to achieve common objectives and avoid any stasis arising from hyper-competitiveness. This paper utilizes a triple-helix “spaces” framework and makes comparisons with other relevant cases to develop a theoretical model of regional renewal through the hybridization of old and new industrial and knowledge elements.     

Merchant identities,trading nodes,and globalization: Introduction to the Special Issue

ABSTRACT

The contributors to this Special Issue are concerned by the nature of transregional Asian interactions taking place in the field of commerce. They explore this concern through an examination of the experiences, activities, and histories of commodity traders whose life trajectories criss-cross Asia. The articles share a common geographic point of reference: Yiwu – an officially designated ‘international trade city’ located in China’s eastern Zhejiang province. The introduction to the Special Issue analytically locates the individual papers in relationship to a long-standing body of work in anthropology and history on port cities and trading nodes. In so doing it suggests the importance of considering multiple historical processes to understanding Yiwu and its position in China and the world today, as well as, more generally, for the anthropology of ‘globalization from below’.