Craniofacial morphology,diet and incisor use in three native American populations

It has been difficult to infer behaviours related to anterior tooth use in fossil hominids owing to a lack of broad‐based comparative studies of the relationships between front tooth use and craniodental features in modern humans. In this study, we seek to establish such a neontological baseline by exploring aspects of craniodental form among populations of recent humans that are inferred to have differed in habitual levels of ingestive and paramasticatory processing using the incisors. Morphometric data are compared among samples from three human populations: Aleutian Islanders (n=25); Arikara from the Mobridge Site, SD (n=19); and a late Woodland Bluff group from Jersey County, IL (n=24). Data for various biomechanically relevant dimensions were collected using standard callipers, while three‐dimensional (3D) coordinate data for 28 cranial landmarks were recorded using a video‐based image analysis system. These data indicate that several aspects of cranial form thought to influence the efficiency of force production on the incisors differ among the examined groups, including the positions and size of the primary masticatory muscles and the position of the dentition. For most dimensions, the Aleut sample exhibits the most mechanically advantageous configuration, the Illinois Bluff group the least advantageous configuration, while the Arikara are intermediate in form. This pattern corresponds to differences in the intensity of incisor loading among these groups, as inferred from both ethnographic reports and incisor microwear data. These results, therefore, suggest that cranial form in humans varies with subsistence‐related differences in masticatory force production and that quantitative studies of masticatory system configuration may provide useful information for studies of hominid palaeobiology. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Incisor labial surface wear striations in modern humans and their implications for handedness in Middle and Late Pleistocene hominids

Over the past four decades several workers have argued that the orientations of striations on the labial surfaces of the front teeth of Middle and Late Pleistocene fossils attributed to Neanderthals and antecedent archaic hominids can tell us something about handedness. These researchers have suggested that such scratches result from stone tools scraping across the incisors during ‘stuff‐and‐cut’ behaviours, and that they reflect directions of hand movements and handedness. In this study, we examine comparable wear features on the incisors of anatomically modern humans to determine whether striation angle may reflect handedness. The teeth from 66 individuals representing four groups with known differences in subsistence practices (Aleut, Arikara, Illinois Bluff, and Puye) were examined. Photomicrographs were made of the maxillary central incisor labial surfaces of all individuals at 56× magnification. These photomicrographs were scanned to image files, and orientations of all visible wear striations were measured using a semi‐automated image analysis procedure. Approximately three‐quarters of all labial surfaces showed a preferred striation orientation. Of those, most had preferred apico‐cervical or vertical striation orientations, independent of cultural affiliation. Few showed the tendency toward diagonally‐oriented scratches expected if handedness is related to scratch orientation. We found no evidence for ‘stuff‐and‐cut’ striations, despite the fact that at least one of the groups studied—the Aleut—are documented to have used this behaviour. In sum, there is evidently no relationship between striation orientation and handedness in the groups studied. It is, therefore, unlikely that labial scratch orientation in Middle and Late Pleistocene hominids reflects handedness if they used their front teeth in a manner comparable to that of any of the anatomically modern groups considered here. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Investigating cross-Gulf trade in the Iron Age III period: chronological and compositional data on Burnished Maroon Slipped Ware (BMSW) in southeastern Arabia and Iran

Recently obtained ceramic compositional data from the late Iron Age sites of Tepe Yahya in Iran and Sharm in the United Arab Emirates is presented in this paper. Analysis of this data suggests that a distinctive ceramic, Burnished Maroon Slipped Ware (BMSW), was produced somewhere in southern Iran and exported across the Gulf to eastern Arabia. That this trade was not limited to any defined historical period, such as that represented by the Achaemenid Empire, is suggested by a series of new AMS C¹⁴ dates from Tepe Yahya. The paper concludes with speculative comments on the possible elite nature of BMSW in societies on either side of the Straits of Hormuz.     

Scaling alternative economic practices? Some lessons from alternative currencies

This paper engages with recent geographical debates on alternative economic practices, arguing that insufficient attention has been paid to the scale at which they operate. Through an analysis of recent attempts to 'fix' economic activity at a scale felt to be normatively desirable through alternative currencies, the paper argues that when attempting to build non-capitalist practices, scale matters. The paper discusses processes of financial structuration that limit and channel these spaces through an analysis of localized alternative networks in the UK (Local Exchange Trading Schemes – LETS) and the geographically wider barter networks in Argentina.     

Fotografie als Wissenschaft

Photography as Science: In 1908 the English physicist Arthur Mason Worthington published A Study of Splashes, a treatise on the physical behaviour of falling drops. The photographic experiments were performed by means of an electric spark „in absolute darkness”︁. Worthington's experimental practice dealt with two different areas of knowledge production: an area the operator could perceive control from the outside and a corresponding black-box where the photographic recording itself took place. The paper discusses the epistemic challenges of this specific shift from imperceptible events to their photographic representations. It shows to what extent the information revealed by the photographic apparatus had to be converted, for it did not speak for itself. Thus, Worthington's work went beyond the classical dichotomy between objectivity and imagination.     

Environment, race and nation reconsidered: reflections on Aboriginal land claims in Canada

The course of development in Northern Canada has been transformed in the last 30 years by the comprehensive land claims process. For much of the twentieth century, the settlement and development of northern Canada was experienced by Aboriginal people as a continuing process of encroachment on (and sometimes transformation of) their traditional territories, and of restriction of their customary livelihood. Examples of this process included the alteration of river systems by impoundment and diversion, the pollution and contamination of river systems, government restrictions on hunting and fishing and population relocation and sedentarization. Aboriginal political and legal action led, in the 1970s, to the establishment of a formal process for resolving Aboriginal land claims, and to revised judicial interpretation of Aboriginal and treaty rights. The paper describes how geographers have contributed to documenting those claims, and how land claims settlements have altered the land and resource regimes in northern Canada, and concludes with some observations on the effectiveness of those remedies, and on the changes in Canadian perspectives on Aboriginal northerners, the northern environment and northern development .     

Exploring the Relations Between Riverbank Erosion and Geomorphological Controls Using Geographically Weighted Logistic Regression

The relations between riverbank erosion and geomorphological variables that are thought to control or influence erosion are commonly modelled using regression. For a given river, a single regression model might befitted to data on erosion and its geomorphological controls obtained along the river's length. However, it is likely that the influence of some variables may vary with geographical location (i.e., distance upstream). For this reason, the spatially stationary regression model should be replaced with a non‐stationary equivalent. Geographically weighted regression (GWR) is a suitable choice. In this paper, GWR is extended to predict the binary presence or absence of erosion via the logistic model. This extended model was applied to data obtained from historical archives and a spatially intensive field survey of a length of 42 km of the Afon Dyfi in West Wales. The model parameters and the residual deviance of the model varied greatly with distance upstream. The practical implication of the result is that different management practices should be implemented at different locations along the river. Thus, the approach presented allowed inference of spatially varying management practice as a consequence of spatially varying geomorphological process.