Perimortem mutilation of human remains in an early village in the American Southwest: A case for ethnic violence

Recent excavations at the Sacred Ridge Site, just south of the town of Durango, Colorado, have uncovered the single largest deposit (to date) of mutilated and processed human remains in the American Southwest. This deposit dates to the very late eighth or very early ninth century A.D. and therefore represents an incidence of large-scale violence and perimortem mutilation dating to the Pueblo I period (A.D. 700–900), when initial village formation occurred in the northern San Juan Region of the Southwest. Expectations for various interpretations for the Sacred Ridge assemblage are generated based on previous research and cross-cultural data on cannibalism, warfare, and human bone processing. Based on a lack of fit with previous models developed to account for extreme processing (EP) events, including starvation cannibalism, warfare and social intimidation, and witch-craft accusations, it is proposed that the Sacred Ridge massacre was the result of ethnic conflict during the Pueblo I period.     

‘Too little,too late’? Science,policy and Dutch Elm Disease in the UK

The Dutch Elm Disease outbreak of the late 1960s and early 1970s was arguably one of the most dramatic environmental events to affect the British countryside in the last fifty years. The demise of over 28 million elms destroyed the much celebrated, and publicly valued, ‘elmscapes’ of lowland England and brought about extensive habitat loss. During the middle and later phases of the epidemic, the policy response from the UK Forestry Commission, Ministry of Agriculture and local government came to be seen as ‘too little, too late’. Yet forty years after the outbreak it is still unclear whether the epidemic could have been better managed and how far any lessons can be drawn for the way present day disease risks to trees should be tackled. Drawing on the extensively documented (but hitherto unexplored) public record of the outbreak held at Forest Research and the National Archives, together with materials from retrospective interviews conducted by the authors with scientists and policymakers closely involved in the epidemic at the time, this paper presents a fresh analysis of Dutch Elm Disease in the UK. The paper seeks to explain the catastrophic outcome of the outbreak, not only in terms of the underlying (and highly malign) pathology of the disease itself, but also because of an initially inaccurate scientific assessment of the nature of the threat constructed within a small but influential community of forest pathologists and policy officials.     

Rural Women,Displacement and the Three Gorges Project

Based on empirical research, this article examines the status, situations and development issues of rural women displaced by the monumental Three Gorges Project (TGP) in China. The study reveals that TGP resettlement is leaving women worse off as family members, as well as worse off than male members. Woman resettlers are more likely to become impoverished than men, partly because women make up the main labour force in agricultural sectors. Most women are unable to achieve occupational mobility in the process of resettlement. Fewer employment opportunities, a gender‐segregated labour market, low level of human capital and social prejudice are principal causes. Land provision for resettlers is inadequate with a lower quality of productivity. Marriage is a means for some women to remain in or move to the reservoir area to improve their socio‐economic status, but bias against granting of ‘resettler’ status to married women and their generally low levels of education and lack of occupational skills work against them. It is imperative that the authorities integrate a gender perspective into policy‐making and design of resettlement schemes.     

Politics and faction at the court of Francis I: the Duchesse D'Etampes, Montmorency and the Dauphin Henri

There has been a growing interest in faction at the court ofFrance in the sixteenth century, alongside the continuing dissectionof clientelism. The later years of Francis I, until recentlyrelatively little understood, have been revealed as a periodof intensely unstable power relations at the centre of the court.This stemmed from the dominance of the Constable de Montmorencyin the years 1537–1540, his step-by-step removal frompower in 1540–1541 and the emergence of the king's mistress,the duchesse d'Etampes as the dominant political figure to whomall the contenders for authority: Admiral Chabot de Brion, Cardinalde Tournon and Admiral Claude d'Annebault had to adjust. Thisstudy examines these relationships, particularly in the lightof the despatches of imperial ambassadors, who sought both toobserve what they thought to be alarming developments in Franceand to encourage the dauphin, an increasingly important figure,to take a hand in the removal of the king's mistress and thesetting aside of his father.     

Carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analysis of hunter–gatherers from the Coleman site,a Late Prehistoric cemetery in Central Texas

We report on a stable isotopic analysis of 17 hunter–gatherer burials from the Coleman site (41BX568), a Late Prehistoric Toyah Interval (700–350 years BP) occupation in Texas. Prior to our analysis, isotopic research on Toyah populations in Central Texas was represented by a single burial at site 41BX677. That burial showed an isotopic pattern suggestive of a diet heavily focused on CAM/C₄ plants and C₄ fauna. Coleman burials show a different pattern. While interpretations are complicated by high variability in the isotopic signatures of children and by differences in male and female diets possibly related to mate exchange, the 11 adult and adolescent burials at Coleman show a diet focused on C₃ fauna and the use of both C₃ and CAM/C₄ plants. The moderate CAM/C₄ plant use is a radical departure from a trend of increasing C₃ plant use that characterized hunter–gatherers in this region for at least 6200 years prior to the start of the Toyah Interval. Protein sources among Coleman adults probably centered on deer, but also included high nitrogen (δ¹⁵N) animals, such as fish. Males seem to have differential access to these high nitrogen sources. Two different isotopic patterns, one reflecting a focus on C₃ fauna and moderate use of CAM/C₄ plants, and a second reflecting C₄ fauna and extensive use of CAM/C₄ plants, are represented during Toyah. While interpretations are complicated by small sample sizes, these two patterns could simply reflect temporal differences, different acquisition strategies based on availability, or hint at different subsistence strategies. It may also be the case that the 41BX677 individual represents an immigrant into the Central Texas region, one with a different isotopic history.