Same island, different diet: Cultural evolution of food practice on Öland, Sweden, from the Mesolithic to the Roman Period

The Mesolithic–Neolithic transition in north-west Europe has been described as rapid and uniform, entailing a swift shift from the use of marine and other wild resources to domesticated terrestrial resources. Here, we approach the when, what and how of this transition on a regional level, using empirical data from Öland, an island in the Baltic Sea off the Swedish east coast, and also monitor changes that occurred after the shift. Radiocarbon dating and stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analyses of bones and teeth from 123 human individuals, along with faunal isotope data from 27 species, applying to nine sites on Öland and covering a time span from the Mesolithic to the Roman Period, demonstrate a great diversity in food practices, mainly governed by culture and independent of climatic changes. There was a marked dietary shift during the second half of the third millennium from a mixed marine diet to the use of exclusively terrestrial resources, interpreted as marking the large-scale introduction of farming. Contrary to previous claims, this took place at the end of the Neolithic and not at the onset. Our data also show that culturally induced dietary transitions occurred continuously throughout prehistory. The availability of high-resolution data on various levels, from intra-individual to inter-population, makes stable isotope analysis a powerful tool for studying the evolution of food practices.     

Big Game and Small Prey: Paleolithic and Epipaleolithic Economy from Valencia (Spain)

This study analyzes the faunal assemblages corresponding to the Middle and Upper Paleolithic and the Early Epipaleolithic for the central Spanish Mediterranean Region dated from between 135,000 and 9,000 B.P. To interpret these data, we employ a zooarchaeological and paleoeconomic perspective. Human large and small game hunting systems are analyzed through the identification of the origins of faunal assemblages, bone breackage patterns, and prey selection patterns. Our study shows that hunting systems changed significantly through time, which may be related to the characteristics of the Mediterranean ecosystem and, above all, to cultural changes.     

Morphological taphonomic transformations of fossil bones in continental environments,and repercussions on their chemical composition

The aim of this paper is to provide a summary of structural or surface modifications of vertebrate bone remains in continental palaeoenvironments that may have repercussions on their chemical composition. Both before and after burial, a different set of physical, chemical and biological agencies may produce modifications of the bone morphological structure and/or bone chemical composition. Several of these morphological modifications are diagnostic of particular agents, which otherwise may not be noticed or identified in a fossil association. In order to understand diagenesis, those events that occurred before final burial have to be considered, as they may strongly modify the bone morphological structure and influence post–burial changes.     

‘Spreading grace’ in post‐Soviet Russia (Respond to this article at http://www.therai.org.uk/at/debate)

The article addresses the revival of Russian Orthodoxy as a prominent domain in the lives of many Russians. The six authors are interested in the underlying question: What makes Russian Orthodoxy a relevent and modern source of morality and identity? The circumstances of this branch of Christianity significantly differ from what has been discussed in recent years as ‘the anthropology of Christianity’. The article proposes a thematic approach in order to connect the exploration of Russian Orthodoxy to the study of other denominations. A key‐area is the disctinctive articulation between continuity and change, which is crucial to the understanding of some branches of Protestantism as well.     

A new synthesis: Resituating approaches to the evolution of human behaviour

Most anthropologists would agree that humans are simultaneously historical, biological, behavioral, and social. However, many researchers retain a relatively dualistic paradigm dividing anthropological questions into biological and/or social aspects. Many practitioners of Neo-Darwinian perspectives prioritize natural selection in all explanations of human evolution. Many other anthropologists refuse to acknowledge a significant role for biological features and biological histories in human action, sensation, and engagement. Both perspectives are misplaced. Incorporating emerging perspectives in evolutionary theory into the broader anthropological discourse may help discard simplistic dualisms and resituate our assessments of the evolution of human behavior. In this essay I review three major emergent themes in evolutionary theory; Multi-Inheritance Systems Theory, Developmental Systems Theory, and Niche Construction. I suggest, with one brief example, that placing these elements in transaction with other perspectives in anthropology might enhance the possibilities of assessing human evolution and behavior.     

Three-dimensional cranial shape analyses and gene flow in North Africa during the Middle to Late Holocene

Archaeological evidence shows that populations used to transverse the Sahara Desert throughout the Holocene despite the extreme temperatures and the rough physical terrain. The current paper examines whether the desert inhibited extended gene flow among populations by means of cranial morphology as captured by geometric morphometrics. The examined populations include the Garamantes, a group centered in Southwest Libya and largely controlling trans-Saharan trade, and various Egyptian, Tunisian and Sudanese groups dating to the Middle and Late Holocene. The results showed that most inter-population comparisons were statistically significant and therefore all populations appear more or less distant to each other. The Mahalanobis biodistance measure identified four clusters. The first consists of the Garamantes alone, the second includes the populations from Kerma and Gizeh, the third includes the Badari and Naqada, while the fourth consists of the samples from Algeria, Carthago, Soleb and Alexandria. Moreover, the distance of the Garamantes to their neighbors was significantly high and the population appeared to be an outlier. This is attributed to the location of the Garamantes at the core of the desert, indicating that, despite the archaeological evidence, the Sahara Desert posed important limitations to gene flow between the Garamantes and other North African populations.     

Gunnar Karlsson,Iceland's 1100 Years: The History of a Marginal Society, (London: Hurst, 2001). 418 pp. ISBN 1-85065-420-4.

This paper explores the role of personal networks and social capital in the assimilation of individuals into the elite of 18th‐century England. In it, I draw on the letterbooks of two merchants from north‐west England to assess the ways in which individuals accessed established networks and thus augmented their social status and business opportunities. In particular, I examine how networks were articulated, and consider their impact on both the social standing of the individual merchant and the construction of a shared culture amongst merchants. It is therefore possible to see business networking as an important counterpart to polite sociability in the construction of an expanded elite.     

Book reviews

Native Resistance and the Pax Colonial in New Spain edited by Susan Schroeder. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 1998. Pp. xxvi + 2000, maps. $45.00/£42.75 (hardback); $19.95/£18.95 (paperback). ISBN 0–8032–4266–2; 0–8032–9249‐X.

European and Native American Warfare, 1675–1815 by Armstrong Starkey. London: UCL Press, 1998. Pp. viii + 208. £40.00 (hardback); £13.95 (paperback). ISBN 1–85728–554–9; 1–85728–555–7.

Frontier Profit and Loss: The British Army and the Fur Traders, 1760–1764 by Walter S. Dunn, Jr. Westport, CT, and London: Greenwood Press, 1998. Pp.xi + 196, map. £47.95 (hardback). ISBN 0–313–30605–2.

British Identities before Nationalism: Ethnicity and Nationhood in the Atlantic World, 1600–1800 by Colin Kidd. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Pp.viii + 302. £35.00. ISBN 0–521–62403–7.

Protestantism and National Identity: Britain and Ireland, c. 1650‐ c. 1850 edited by Tony Claydon and Ian McBride. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Pp.xii + 317. £40.00 (hardback). ISBN 0–521–62077–5.

Scottish Highlanders in Colonial Georgia: The Recruitment, Emigration, and Settlement at Darien, 1735–1748 by Anthony W. Parker. Athens and London: University of Georgia Press, 1997. Pp.xiii +182. £31.50 (hardback). ISBN 0–8203–1915–5.

In Irons: Britain's Naval Supremacy and the American Revolutionary Economy by Richard Buel, Jr. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1998. Pp.xi + 397. £25.00/$35.00 (hardback). ISBN 0–300–07388–7.

Science and Exploration in the Pacific: European Voyages to the Southern Oceans in the Eighteenth Century edited by Margarette Lincoln. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell Press in association with the National Maritime Museum, 1998. Pp.xix + 228, illus. £35.00/$63.00 (hardback). ISBN 0–85115–721–1.

Imperial Benevolence: Making British Authority in the Pacific Islands by Jane Samson. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1998. Pp.xiii + 240, maps. $35.00 (hardback). ISBN 0–8248–1927–6.

The Maratha War Papers of Arthur Wellesley, January to December 1803 edited by Anthony S. Bennell. Stroud, Glos.: Sutton Publishing for the Army Records Society, 1998. Pp.xi + 458. £40.00 (hardback). ISBN 0–7509–2069–6.

Contentious Traditions: The Debate on Sati in Colonial India by Lata Mani. Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press, 1998. Pp.xiv + 246, illustrations. $47.00/£37.50 (hardback); $18.00/£13.95 (paperback). ISBN 0–520–21407–2 (paperback).

’Christen und Gewürze’: Konfrontation und Interaktion kolonialer und indigener Christentumsvarianten edited by Klaus Koschorke. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1998. Pp.298. DM 98 (paperback). ISBN 3–525–55960–7.

Religion in Victorian Britain, Volume V: Culture and Empire edited by John Wolffe. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1997. Pp.viii + 359, illustrations. £14.99 (paperback). ISBN 0–7190–5184–3.

Imperialism and Colonialism: Essays on the History of European Expansion by H.L. Wesseling. Westport, CT and London: Greenwood Press, 1997. Pp.x + 212. £47.50 (hardback). ISBN 0–313–30431–9.

The Foundations of Naval History: John Knox Laughton, the Royal Navy and the Historical Profession by Andrew Lambert. London: Chatham, 1998. Pp.256, illustrations. £30.00 (hardback). ISBN 1–86176–086–8.

Sturm über dem Nil. Der Mahdi‐Aufstand: Aus den Anfängen des islamischen Fundamentalismus by Wilfried Westphal. Sigmaringen: Thorbecke, 1998. Pp.419, 23 pictures, three maps. DM 48.00 (hardback). ISBN 3–7995–0092–8.

The Journal of John Wodehouse First Earl of Kimberley for 1862–1902 edited by Angus Hawkins and John Powell. Camden Fifth Series Volume 9. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press for the Royal Historical Society, 1997. Pp.xxii + 530. £40.00 (hardback). ISBN 0521–62328–6.

Lord Methuen and the British Army: Failure and Redemption in South Africa by Stephen M. Miller. London, and Portland, OR: Frank Cass, 1999. Pp.viii + 279, maps. £39.50/$57.50 (hardback), £17.50/$26.50 (paperback). ISBN 0–7146–4904‐X; 0–7146–4460–9.

Francophone Sub‐Saharan Africa 1880–1995 by Patrick Manning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Pp.xii + 247, maps. £40.00 (hardback); £14.95 (paperback). ISBN 0–521–64255–8; 0–521–64519–0.

Mau Mau From Below by Greet Kershaw. Oxford: James Currey, 1997. Pp.xxx + 354. £14.95 (paperback). ISBN 0–85255–731–0.

Mau Man and Kenya by Wunyabari O. Maloba. Oxford: James Currey, 1998. Pp.x + 228. £14.95 (paperback). ISBN 0–85255–745–0.

History of Central Africa: The Contemporary Years Since 1960 edited by David Birmingham and Phyllis M. Martin. London: Longman, 1998. Pp.vii + 314. £17.99 (paperback). ISBN 0–582–27607–1.

Iran and the Rise of Reza Shah: From Qajar Collapse to Pahlavi Power by Cyrus Ghani, London: I.B. Tauris, 1998. Pp.xiv + 434. £29.50 (hardback). ISBN 1–86064–258–6.

A History of Laos by Martin Stuart‐Fox. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997. Pp.xv + 253, maps. £35.00 (hardback); £12.95 (paperback). ISBN 0–521–59235–6; 0–521–59746–3.

Britain in China: Community, Culture and Colonialism 1900–1949 by Robert Bickers. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1999. Pp.xii + 276, tables, illustrations. £45.00 (hardback); £15.99 (paperback). ISBN 0–7190–4697–1; 0–7190–5697–7.

Between Two Oceans: A Military History of Singapore From First Settlement to Final British Withdrawal by Malcolm H. Murfett, John N. Miksic, Brian P. Farrell, and Chiang Ming Shun. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999. Pp.xviii + 398. £35.00 (paperback). ISBN 0–19–588482–5.