MakingGüeras: Selling white identities on late-night Mexican television

This article examines discourses of whiteness and color in Mexico through a discussion of White Secret, a widely available skin-lightening cosmetic product. In an analysis of a televised infomercial advertising the product, we examine contextualizations of whiteness in Mexico, as figured through the product's representations of light-skinned female bodies and advanced cosmetic technology. We consider the ways that White Secret can speak to broader conceptualizations of whiteness and identity and, furthermore, argue that such an engagement points to the need to interrogate the geographical and epistemological limits of current understandings of whiteness based in Anglo-American and Latin-American contexts.

Creando güeras: La venta de identidades blancas en la televisión Mexicana de media noche En este artículo, hacemos un análisis sobre los discursos de ‘blancura’ y de color con respecto a la población en México a través de una discusión sobre ‘White Secret’, un producto cosmético para aclarar la piel que es muy disponible en México. Por un análisis de un ‘info-nuncio’ que sale por la televisión anunciando el producto ‘White Secret’, exploramos los entretejemientos de la construcción de blancura en México y como este ‘info-nuncio’ manipula imágenes de los cuerpos de güeras (mujeres de piel clara) y tecnología cosmética avanzada. Reflexionamos acerca de las maneras que el producto ‘White Secret’ pueda hablar a concepciones más amplias sobre la construcción de identidad y blancura y además, discutimos que tal exploración indica la necesidad de interrogar los limites epistemológicos y geográficos de la comprensión actual de la construcción de blancura basados en los contextos Latino Americanos y Anglo Americanos.     

Why does (archaeological) micromorphology have such little traction in (geo)archaeology?

Archaeological deposits are often complex and illustrative of an intricate interplay between geogenic and anthropogenic inputs and formation processes. Even for those archaeologists—particularly prehistorians—who consider the basic principles of natural stratigraphy to excavate their sites, they nonetheless typically underutilize the observations and data available at the microstratigraphic level. The technique of soil micromorphology—or archaeological micromorphology as referred to throughout this paper—has seen an astounding increase in its use to answer archaeological questions and archaeological sediments in the last decades. However, we consider that this tool is still quite underutilized and not as mainstream as other techniques. In this paper, we briefly reflect on what can be some of the causes underlying this situation and how we (that is, both producers and consumers of micromorphology data) can go about to change it. The main idea is that we need to establish a better and more approachable way to present micromorphological results and be better at integrating them with the macroscopic archaeological data and research questions.     

Caught in a trap: landscape and climate implications of the insect fauna from a Roman well in Sherwood Forest

Sherwood Forest in Nottinghamshire is often considered a well-preserved ancient landscape, subsequently having survived by way of centuries of management as a hunting preserve. Archaeological evidence suggests otherwise, with an enclosed landscape beginning in the pre-Roman Iron Age and continuing through the Roman period. Due to the nature of the region’s soils, however, there is little empirical, palaeoecological evidence on its environmental history prior to the medieval period. This paper presents an insect fauna from a Roman well in a small enclosure in north Nottinghamshire, on the edge of Sherwood Forest, and its interpretation in terms of contemporary land use. Wells and small pools act as large pitfall traps and may effectively sample aspects of the local and regional insect fauna. The Wild Goose Cottage fauna and its environmental implications are also compared with a number of archaeologically and geographically similar contexts.     

Book reviews

Society and Economics in Islam: Writings and Declarations of Ayatullah Sayyid Mahmud Taleghani. By Mahmud Taliqani. Edited by Hamid Algar. Translated by R. Campbell. Berkeley: Mizan Press, 1982. 230 pp.

Islam and Ownership. By Seyyed Mahmood Taleqani. Translated by Ahmad Jabbari and Farhang Rajaee. Lexington, Kentucky: Mazda Publishers, 1983. xviii + 200 pages. Index to p. 203. $11.00 paper.

From Nationalism to Revolutionary Islam. Edited by Said Amir Arjomand. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1984. xxi + 256 pp.

Another Birth, Selected Poems of Forugh Farrokhzad. Translated by Hasan Javadi and Susan Sallee. Emeryville: Albany Press, 1981. 138 pp.

Die Agrarlandschaft Iranisch‐Sistans: Aspekte des Strukturwandels im 20. Jahrhundert. (Sistan‐Projekt II). By Mohammad Hassan Zia Tavana. Marburg/Lahn: Marburger Geographische Schriften, Heft 91, 1983. 212 pp., 34 figures, 35 tables. DM 33.00. Paper.

Iran since the Revolution. By Sepehr Zabih. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1982. 247 pp.

The Prophets of Doom: Literature as a Socio‐political Phenomenon in Modern Iran. By M. R. Ghanoonparvar. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1984. viii + 227 pp.