Walking the Land: Aboriginal Trails,Cultural Landscapes,and Archaeological Studies for Impact Assessment

Aboriginal people have occupied northern Alberta since the end of the last ice age. For most of that time they travelled across the land by foot, producing complex networks of trails, many of which may have great antiquity. Aboriginal people also modified the landscape extensively by the use of controlled burning. Lastly, they are immersed in and “read” the land as places with multiple cultural meanings, which in turn helped shape their cultures and identities. Together, these elements indicate the existence of a series of overlapping cultural landscapes for which the cross-country trails and waterways provide the grid. This article addresses the importance of traditional trails for identifying the cultural landscapes of northeastern Alberta and points to the rapid disappearance today of knowledge about such trails. It considers how archaeological investigations done in Alberta for Impact Assessment purposes fail to consider either trails or cultural landscapes in their surveys or to consult with Aboriginal people. As a result, government Review Panels making recommendations for whether or not an industrial project should be approved are basing their findings on incomplete information about Aboriginal land uses and meanings.     

Genealogies of Practice in and of the Environment in Banda,Ghana

Despite recent emphases on both environmental archaeology and practice theory in archaeology, the two are rarely combined. In this paper, we illustrate a genealogies of environmental practice approach that seeks to understand how human actions grounded in familiar repertoires make sense of environmental and political economic change. Employing archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological data, we first examine taxon-specific genealogies of practice and then compare them to one another as well as to broader climatic, political, and economic contexts of the last millennium in Banda, west central Ghana. In focusing on the interactivities between different kinds of data, we coax out the strategies used by Banda’s inhabitants to cope with fluctuating environmental and political conditions. We argue that during a several centuries long drought in the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries ad, Banda villagers took advantage of a diverse set of economic activities to cope with turbulence, but by the late nineteenth century, these opportunities had dwindled, diminishing the villagers’ practical options.     

Regional agency and constitution of new paths: a study of agency in early formation of new paths on the west coast of Norway

ABSTRACT

This article analyses regional agency in the early phases of new path constitution. We argue that the early stages of new path constitution can be explained by both structural factors and the strong presence of agency. With a specific focus on agency, this article contributes to the literature by providing a study of the role of agency at different stages of path constitution. The study shows that two types of agency operate together. Public policy agency is carried out through a common thrust for policy tools that can enhance the room to manoeuvre together. In addition, strong entrepreneurial agency functions as a locomotive for other firms which are important trigger points, and pushes the process forward. These two forms of agency need to be interrelated to constitute new paths.     

Policy Innovativeness and Interstate Compacts

Are some American states inherently more innovative than others? This question has confounded researchers for more than four decades. In this study we develop a measure of collective policy innovation that measures formal cooperative policy arrangements among the states, compare the measure to existing measures of internal state policy innovation, and assess whether existing innovativeness measures explain policy cooperation among the states. This test of the innovativeness concept addresses internal and external validity concerns that have long plagued this research tradition. Our multivariate analyses indicate that policy innovativeness is often a statistically and substantively important determinant of compact participation. These results suggest that (i) innovativeness is a meaningful and durable state attribute, (ii) several existing indices successfully capture the underlying latent concept, and (iii) innovativeness provides analytic utility in multiple empirical contexts.     

Kingship and Catholicism in Posthumous Representations of Charles II, 1685–1714

Examining Charles II's changing posthumous reputation from his rumored deathbed conversion to Catholicism through the political upheaval of the late-seventeenth and early-eighteenth centuries demonstrates the profound effects affairs of state during the reigns of James II, William III, and Anne had on ideas of kingship. From elegists' depictions as the glory of the Stuart monarchy, Charles became James' feared counterpart during debates over the Copies of Two Papers Written by the Late King Charles II, and finally a distinctly human ruler. Published posthumous representations of Charles II suggest increasing willingness to consider kings as fallible men who made contestable decisions.     

Pigment analysis in Bronze Age Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean painted plaster by laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS)

Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) was used in the examination of Bronze Age painted plaster samples from several sites in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean. The elemental content of paint materials was determined in most cases leading to the identification of the pigment used in agreement with data from analyses of the same samples with other established techniques. The analyses demonstrate that a virtually non-destructive technique such as LIBS provides sufficient data for the elemental characterisation of painting materials while in parallel has the capability for routine, rapid analysis of archaeological objects enabling the quick characterisation or screening of different types of artefacts. This certainly shows an important way forward in technological studies of fragile and scarce archaeological material.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">Corrales de Indios</Emphasis> (Lithic Structures) in Tandilia,Argentina: A Global Study

In the central-southeastern area of Buenos Aires Province, Argentina, lies a mountainous area of low height in Tandilia that contains important outcrops of quartzite and granite. A large number of buildings are made of massive blocks of rock, some of them with a surface of over 1 ha. In addition to these completely artificial constructions are other structures that are semi-natural, having been made in places with special topographical characteristics and complemented with dry-stone walls. Scanty written documents allow us to attribute some of the constructions to an age before the permanent settlement of the Creole population. In the Tandilia Sierras these structures are commonly known as “corrales de indios” (Indian corrals). This designation involves a double prejudice with regard to function and cultural affiliation. Out of a total of 22 structures, we analyze a group of 4 that were excavated to use to review the written documents.