Of Sodomy and Cannibalism: Dehumanisation,Embodiment and the Rhetorics of Same‐Sex and Cross‐Species Contagion

This article explores ideas of the ‘human’ in discourses surrounding the AIDS epidemic, from the 1980s to the present. It compares two sequential lines of thought: first, the notion of AIDS as the result of ‘unnatural’ gender behaviours and queer sexualities; and second, the notion of AIDS and other zoonotics (cross‐species diseases) as the result of non‐western dietary practices and social mores. In the first case, the early years of the AIDS crisis are traced through the languages of sexual perversity utilised by the popular press and the Christian right. In the second case, the later years of the epidemic are traced, once the ‘roots’ of the virus became tied to Africa, and carriers became bestialised in narratives that located HIV as a consequence of unnatural, or inhuman, interactions with the animal world. The article argues that we have witnessed a paradigm shift in the didactics of the epidemic, from a narrative of sexual impropriety to one that also includes a narrative of dietary impropriety, each of which consistently relies upon a clear dichotomy between the human and the inhuman.     

The black family needs no defense

Jerold Heiss. The Case of the Black Family: A Sociological Inquiry. New York & London: Columbia University Press, 1975. 246 pp. $13.50.     

Body Snatching & Grave Robbing: Bodies for Science

This paper parallels the history of body snatching for dissection in the United States with the robbing of Native American graves by nineteenth‐century anthropologists for osteological collections. The implications of the similarities revealed are discussed; specifically whether ethical responsibilities to the deceased were being upheld by researchers and how these practices were maintained through the exploitation of marginalized members of society. In both cases, bodies were commodified in the grave (interred as people and later extracted as resources) and clandestinely acquired, studied and then disposed of or stored away. For doctors, the traffic in cadavers ended when voluntary donation of bodies to science increased in the twentieth century. For anthropologists the situation has been reversed, as they now face the potential destruction of their skeletal collections as a result of legal reforms such as NAGRPA.     

Prison and sacrament in the cult of saints: images of St Barbara in late medieval art

This article analyses the changing visual representation of St Barbara during the later middle ages. The article identifies a shift in St Barbara's iconography: whereas earlier medieval representations of the saint almost always show her with her prison tower, a number of fifteenth-century representations show the saint holding a chalice and host. The article traces how and why this shift occurred. In particular, the article explores the ways in which medieval thinking linking incarceration and liberation were integrated into new representations of St Barbara to stress her intercessionary, sacramental functions. Overall, the article argues that the visual transformation of St Barbara's prison tower into a liturgical vessel reveals how saints like Barbara were increasingly viewed as conduits to the inclusive sort of freedom that participation in Christianity's sacramental economy invited.     

Experimental evidence for lithic projectile injuries: improving identification of an under-recognised phenomenon

Between the Upper Palaeolithic and the spread of metallurgy stone-tipped projectiles were of great importance both for subsistence and as weapons. Whilst finds of embedded projectile points in human and animal bone are not uncommon, identifications of such wounds in the absence of embedded points are rare. Previous experimentation involving archaic projectiles has not examined the effects of stone-tipped projectiles on bone. This paper presents the results of experiments in which samples of animal bone were impacted with flint-tipped arrows. The results demonstrate that positive identifications can be made, both grossly and microscopically, of bony trauma caused by flint projectiles. In addition, flint projectiles are shown to often leave small embedded fragments, which can also be identified microscopically. These results compare well with archaeological examples of suspected ‘arrow wounds’ and the article demonstrates the practical application of this data in identifying such injuries. By facilitating the recognition of projectile trauma these findings will have significance both for the investigation of hunting strategies and levels of conflict amongst early human societies.     

Identification of urate crystals in gouty individuals

In paleopathology cases of gout have traditionally been identified using the character of erosive bony lesions, but in clinical medicine identification of monosodium urate crystals in joint fluid plays a central role in diagnosis. Work undertaken on three skeletal individuals who had been buried, demonstrates that crystals can be identified using polarising microscopy. The crystals were identified as monosodium urate. Results from this study appear to demonstrate that identification of monosodium urate crystals could be used to assist in the diagnosis of gout in paleopathology. Further work is required to establish the full range of spatial and temporal contexts from which such crystals might be found.     

An experimental ethnoarchaeological approach to understanding the development of use wear associated with the processing of river cane for split-cane technology

Southeastern Indians have been using cane (Arundinaria spp.) for basketry and matting for thousands of years. Unfortunately, it is only under extraordinary preservation conditions that such items survive archaeologically. Inferring the production of split-cane technology requires an understanding of prehistoric manufacturing and processing techniques. It is hypothesized that stone tools were once used to process cane for use in split-cane technologies. In the Southeast, it is not uncommon to find stone tools with traces of plant use; however attributing wear to specific plants has been problematic. Pilot experiments, grounded on ethnoarchaeological observations, were conducted with river cane (Arundinaria gigantea) in collaboration with expert basket weavers in the Cherokee Nation. The experimental ethnoarchaeological program was designed to test the efficiency of stone tools in cane processing and document use wear through microscopic observations. The results found that non-retouched flakes were efficient for processing river cane and that the different stages of splint preparation resulted in the differential development of use-related wear. Additional experimentation with river cane is necessary to better define use wear and establish criteria for identification in archaeological contexts. Nonetheless, the collaborative and experimental approach undertaken demonstrated the utility of combining traditional archaeological methods with experimentation, ethnoarchaeology, and tribal knowledge.     

(Re)Producing and challenging gender in and through urban space: women bicyclists’ experiences in Chicago

This research, which uses an intersectional feminist methodological approach, explores the relationships and intersections among women, public urban space, and bicycling, and the gendered processes through which the use of space is claimed, negotiated, and constrained. It builds on the existing scholarship on the gendered nature of public space, and uniquely uses bicycling as the site of inquiry. Drawing primarily from interviews with women cyclists in Chicago, this article explores how gender and other social identities are constructed, challenged, and constituted through an interaction with public space, urban processes and structures, and societal expectations and attitudes. It brings to the forefront and centers these narratives and empirically contextualizes them by linking the scholarship on the gendered (and raced, classed, and sexualized) nature of public space with the scholarship on women’s participation rates and barriers to bicycling. This research examines, through the everyday lived experiences of bicyclists and their multiple subject positions and privileges, how the gendered nature of public space affects the participation and experiences of women cyclists; how public space is negotiated and constrained; and how gender can be both (re)produced and challenged in and through urban space via women bicyclists’ actions. In particular, the research findings explore how women bicyclists must demand and negotiate public space; how their movement and activities are constrained in public space; how gender roles and social reproduction issues intersect with bicycling; and how social, quasi-advocacy group bicycle rides are used as a strategy, with mixed results, to address barriers to women bicyclists’ mobility.