Ethnoarchaeology of Domestic Space and Spatial Behaviour Among the Tiv and Ungwai of Central Nigeria

An attempt has been made in this paper to use ethnoarchaeology to clarify our understanding of aspects of domestic space and spatial behaviour among the Tiv and Ungwai peoples of Central Nigeria. Indeed, the work is in several senses, a comparative study of two ethnolinguistic groups who occupy a similar ecological niche with broadly similar sociopolitical organisation. This mode of organisation is non-centralized in character. In addition, the two peoples had a tradition of hilltop occupation in ancient times. Differences in topography (hilltops for the ancient settlers and lowlands for the present-day peoples) have affected not only the compound layout of each of these ethnic groups but also among other features, the architecture of their houses. Given the limited available archaeological data including charcoal samples for dating, one is not yet able to ascribe specific functions to some of the structures identified on the archaeological sites (hilltops). This will be better addressed as research progresses.Quelques tentatives ont ete faits dans cet article pour se servir de Iethnoarchaeologie pour expliquer les divers aspects de lespace domestique et des caracteres de loccupation lespace parmi les Tiv et les Ungwai de la region centrale du Nigeria. En fait, ce travail est en grandes measures une etude comparative des deux groupes ethnolinguistiques occupant le meme crenau ecologique ayant largement la meme organization socio-politique. Le mode dorganisation est du type non centralize. De plus les deux groupes ethniques ont une tradition de locucpation des peuples anciens centres sur le haut de la colline. Des differences en topographie (le haut des collines pour le anciens occupants et la plaine pour les habitants actuels) n ont pas seulement eu effets sur la generalite de la maniere dont les concessions des ces groupes ethniques se presentent mais aussi larchitecture de leurs maisons sont parmi les traits particuliers importants. A cause du numbrer restreint de donnees disponibles en ce moment, nous ne sommes pas encore en mesure dattribuer certaines functions aux structures identifiees aux chantiers archaeologigues (au sommet des collines). Ces functions seront mieux traitees au fur et a mesure que lon avance dans nos recherches.     

L'«École de l'ETH» dans l'œuvre de Gaston Bachelard

We retrace here spectral presence in the work of Gaston Bachelard which we call «The School of the ETH». We have chosen three fundamental figures: hermann Weyl, Wolfgang Pauli and Gustave Juvet. For the first one, we consider his central and permanent place in the Bachelardian constitution of a philosophy which seeks to be at the height of the new «physical geometry» rigorously constructed in a Riemannian spirit. As for Pauli, we show an unsuspected affinity which is backed up by the remarkable analyses brought to it by philosophy: from the urgent construction of a «quantic metaphysics», founded on the implications of aPauli principle well understood, to the idea of a «metaphysical particle», going on to the decisive and so promising stakes of the «postulate of non-analysis». In the framework of this convergent polyconstruction of the «surrationalist», enterprise, we treat the third figure, less known but equally important, of the mathematician-philosopher Gustave Juvet.     

Éloge de la politique

Sans résumé novembre 2000 CharlesKleiber, architecte, directeur des h?pitaux universitaires du canton de Vaud, enseignant en économie de la santé à l'université de Lausanne, est secrétaire d'état à l'éducation et à la recherche     

Paul Bernays et la rénovation des fondements philosophiques des mathématiques

The history of the foundations of mathematics in the XX^th century leads to a revision of the meaning of traditional philosophical notions such as «evidence», «experience» or «rationality». This paper focuses on the influence of Ferdinand Gonseth's «open philosophy» on Paul Bernays' philosophical interpretations of the technical results in the foundations. Familiar with the ideas of Jacob Friedrich Fries and Léonard Nelson, the logician Bernays turns at the middle of the century more and more towards Gonseth's ideas. Quite before Thomas Kuhn, Bernays considers the revisions under consideration not simply as a problem of truth and falsehood, but as a task requiring the introduction of a new conceptual system. Indeed, in opposition to Kuhn, according to Bernays, the necessary change is less the consequence from a change of paradigm and methodological incommensurability as a epistemological necessity.     

Ordre des décrets divins,hiérarchie des droits humains

Until the xvi^th century, the use of public force in the service of religious unity seems to be a consequence of a zeal for the salvation of others. In order to reach civil peace, in the nations where different creeds confronted each other, it was necessary to find a theological foundation for the legal recognition of a freedom of conscience and of religion. The Protestant theologians of the Academy of Saumur, founded by Philippe Duplessis-Mornay, a negotiator of the Edict of Nantes, sought this foundation in a theology of creation. God created man to live peacefully in the company of his fellow-men and the drama of original sin, although it led for its reparation to a revelation from God, protected by the Church, did not destroy this primary order. «We are men, writes Amyraut, before being Christians.»     

Taphonomy and dispersion of bones scavenged by New World vultures and caracaras in Northwestern Patagonia: implications for the formation of archaeological sites

Scavenger birds can feed on large- to small-sized vertebrates and may contribute in the formation of archaeological sites. To evaluate the modifications and dispersal patterns of bones produced by New World vulture and caracara from Northwestern Patagonia, samples of adult sheep, young sheep, and hare carcasses were offered and subsequently analyzed. New World vultures and caracaras quickly fed on the samples. Taphonomic and bone dispersal patterns suggest two types of accumulations: (1) open-air sites with large and medium-sized vertebrates represented by complete, fractured, scratched, notched, and punctured elements and (2) rock shelter or cave sites dominated by small vertebrates represented by broken, corroded, fractured, and digested elements.     

Representative archaeological finds of <Emphasis Type="Italic">pietra ollare</Emphasis> from Comacchio (Italy): identifying provenance and high-T mineral breakdown reactions hindering lithotype classification

Three different lithotype groups have been recognized in representative fragments of pietra ollare artefacts found in the mediaeval archaeological excavations of Comacchio (Italy). Petrographic, mineralogical and chemical compositions clearly show that Valchiavenna and Valmalenco, in the Central Alps, represent the provenance areas of two of the pietra ollare groups, i.e. grey carbonate talc schist (also known as soapstone) and green chlorite schist, respectively. The third representative pietra ollare group consists of whitish-yellowish rocks inferred to be Alpine talc schists that have suffered some artificial pyrometamorphic transformation hindering their classification in the framework of pietra ollare lithotype categories and source localities reported in literature. A distinguishing feature of these high temperature-fired (HT-fired) talc schist samples is the occurrence of talc and chlorite dehydroxylation and subsolidus reaction products, mainly protoenstatite/enstatite + forsterite, together with relatively low loss on ignition values. These talc schists might have been exposed to temperatures >900 °C (with the resulting talc dehydroxylation producing a void-rich texture), but never reaching 1200 °C, which is the sintering temperature for soapstones. The whitish-yellowish artefacts were definitely not used as containers for cooking food at temperatures below or around 500–600 °C (as instead shown by the preservation of the original physical features of the grey pietra ollare lithotypes), but in some kind of higher-T pyrotechnological processes.     

Beeswax remnants,phase and major element chemical composition of the bronze age mould from Gaj Oławski (SW Poland)

The recently found metal casting mould from Gaj O?awski (SW Poland) was designed for the production of socketed axes typical for later stages of the Bronze Age in Poland (ca. 1100–900 bc). This unique artefact is a half of a durable, two-piece wedge-shaped mould and measures 17.5?×?7.2?×?4.0 cm. The surface of the mould is covered copper oxides and carbonates, and the remnant of beeswax was found on its inner surface. The metal forming mould consists of cored dendrites of Cu-dominated (Cu >96.5 wt%, up to 2.2 wt% Sn) and Cu impoverished (Cu ~86.0 wt%, Sn ~9.4 wt%, some Sb, As and Ag) end compositions and volumetrically subordinate α?+?δ eutectoid. The “as cast” structure of the metal shows that the mould was never used for molten metal casting. Since this kind of moulds was used for mass casting of metal, the Gaj O?awski one was probably never used, and the beeswax is the remain of its coating. This is the first remain of the Bronze Age beeswax described in metallurgical context in Europe.     

Finding the Past in the Landscape: <Emphasis Type="Italic">Sambaqui</Emphasis> and <Emphasis Type="Italic">Kaizuka</Emphasis> Amid Appropriation and Construction of Identities (Brazil and Japan)

In a comparative analysis, it is possible to discuss how sambaqui and kaizuka appear as objects of scientific investigation and also as part of the social imaginary and the cultural landscape. Archaeology, in its trajectory as a scientific field, is influenced or even directed by the different moments of construction of a national identity and discourse. While in Brazil there is a clear cut between the past and the building of a nation, situating sambaqui in the realm of the other, in Japan, the continuum from a past beyond records encompasses and situate the kaizuka within the social imaginary as part of the national narrative.