The Use of Animal Bone as Fuel in the Third Millennium BC Walled Enclosure of Castanheiro do Vento (Northern Portugal)

Experiments on fire manipulation of bones as fuel demonstrated that animal bones are effective in the act of maintaining lasting combustion. These experiments are almost always applied to the studies in hunter–gather societies in prehistory, even though the use of bones as fuel is also known in historical times. Based on data and models resulting from these recent experiments, both in laboratory and in real hearths, I tested the hypothesis of the use of animal bone as fuel in the third/second millennium BC walled enclosure of Castanheiro do Vento, in northern Portugal. The faunal assemblage shows some specific characteristics such as a very low percentage of identifiable material and close to 90% of charred bones with a very high index of fragmentation I link the faunal analysis with the results of some experiments recently published. These experiments show the particularities of bone fuel combustion, specifically used in certain activities. Nevertheless, the interpretation of these activities in Castanheiro do Vento is difficult to achieve because of the preliminary state of the investigations. As an additional problem, the available interpretations in the literature concern mostly hunter–gather, and models do not take into account the complex societies of the third/second millennium BC. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Rethinking environmental justice in the Anthropocene: An anthropological perspective

This article encourages a closer dialogue between contemporary anthropological reflections on nature and the environment and environmental justice (EJ). We can revise the environment concept by adopting a more nuanced view of the ontological relations between humans and non-humans. The idea of ‘assemblage’ as reworked in the Anthropocene debate enriches EJ with a multispecies perspective and a new ‘temporal awareness’. Ethnography grounded in the confluence of human/geophysical agency and temporality can help us understand past eco-social dynamics and possible futures and overcome environmental inequalities and discrimination.     

Sentimental Capitalism in Contemporary India: Art,Heritage, and Development in Ahmedabad,Gujarat

Using a critical cultural politics approach and deploying the concept of sentimental capitalism, this article problematizes the burgeoning creative economy discourse while analyzing spaces of art and heritage production in Ahmedabad, India. I situate the Cotton Exchange exhibit (April 2013) in an erstwhile mill in recent histories of mill closures, genocide, creative economy initiatives and development aspirations of revitalizing degraded space. I argue that in remaking place, art mobilizes sentiments—here, nostalgia and hope—while erasing violence and inequality. Sentimental capitalism is at work in the exhibition by mobilizing artisans as entrepreneurial agents not victims of capitalism; constructing art's aura of grassroots participation and artisanal empowerment while obscuring displacement and exploitation; and fostering cult‐like regard for art's intrinsic and instrumental value as non‐profit and its capacity to engender opportunity, recognition, and even property. While another spatial politics is possible, in Ahmedabad today, art is being mobilized to obscure dispossession and exploitation in the name of urban revitalization and heritage production.     

Simulation of Shake Table Tests on Out-of-Plane Masonry Buildings. Part (V): Discrete Element Approach

ABSTRACT

The analysis of the shaking table test of a 3-wall stone masonry structure performed with a discrete element model is presented. The numerical model, created with the code 3DEC, employed a rigid block representation and a Mohr-Coulomb joint model. Joint stiffness calibration to match the experimental natural frequencies is discussed, as well as the boundary conditions to simulate the shake table. Comparisons are made with the measured displacements at key locations, and the modes of deformation and fracture of the walls. The DEM model was able to reproduce important features of the shaking table tests. The experimental deformation and near collapse patterns were clearly identifiable in the numerical simulations, which produced displacements within the observed orders of magnitude, for the various levels of excitation.