Finding likeness: Neural plasticity and ritual experience

To efficiently survive, living creatures require some means of recording their experiences, predicting future experiences on the firm basis of such recordings and deciding on actions that help survival and reproduction. For us humans, this is provided by our very large brains. Our brains are adaptable; indeed, we never use the same brain twice. There are two main mechanisms: reversible synaptic plasticity and the irreversible myelination of axons. Culture can be seen as the store of world knowledge, tacit and explicit, that individuals must acquire to facilitate decision-making by defining their range of options and to become acceptable social persons. Such knowledge is encoded, in ways not yet fully understood, in the pattern of our brain’s connections. In rites of passage, one’s social identity is transformed, entailing a significant modification of this pattern. Liminal status, brought about by entrainment with the ritual’s powerfully affective actions, appears to remove the cultural feedbacks that maintained one’s former social identity and enables durable modification to brain connections by means of a greater myelination of existing pathways and myelination of previously unused pathways. Such changes might be empirically observable using non-invasive MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) techniques. The shared intense experience during the liminal period encourages a sense of likeness among participants, which is embedded in their brains by shared patterns of durable connections.     

STABLE ISOTOPE INVESTIGATIONS OF THE DANEBURY HILLFORT PIT BURIALS

Carbon and nitrogen isotope analyses were performed on human and animal bones recovered from pits within Danebury Iron Age hillfort. All results are within the range expected for European Holocene specimens and are similar to those from other Iron Age sites in central southern Britain. Our results indicate that the human diet included a significant amount of animal protein (meat and/or dairy products) consumed on a regular basis, but do not preclude a diet based heavily on cereal consumption. In comparison with the extensive heterogeneity visible in the animal isotope values, the homogeneity of the human values is rather striking. This may be a reflection of the much slower turnover rate of adult human collagen and may also indicate that the humans consumed a much greater variety of food than the fauna (thus averaging many isotopic sources). This is consistent with the role of hillforts as central places and locations for food distribution and exchange.     

THE PROVENANCE AND TECHNOLOGY OF NEAR EASTERN GLASS: OXYGEN ISOTOPES BY LASER FLUORINATION AS A COMPLEMENT TO STRONTIUM*

The ability to make rapid measurements on small samples using laser fluorination enhances the potential of oxygen isotopes in the investigation of early inorganic materials and technologies. δ¹⁸O and ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr values are presented for glass from two primary production sites, four secondary production sites and a consumer site in the Near East, dating from Late Antiquity to the medieval period. δ¹⁸O is in general slightly less effective than ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr in discriminating between sources, as the spread of measured values from a single source is somewhat broader relative to the available range. However, while ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr is derived predominantly from either the lime‐bearing fraction of the glass‐making sand or the plant ash used as a source of alkali, δ¹⁸O derives mainly from the silica. Thus the two measurements can provide complementary information. A comparison of δ¹⁸O for late Roman – Islamic glasses made on the coast of Syria–Palestine with those of previously analysed glasses from Roman Europe suggests that the European glasses are relatively enriched in ¹⁸O. This appears to contradict the view that most Roman glass was made using Levantine sand and possible interpretations are discussed.     

The limits of objective interests

Jack L. Goldsmith and Eric A. Posner are influential academics in American debates on international law. Their recent book, The limits of international law, is appraised in this review article. It discusses the exclusion in their analysis of the possibility that states have a real or perceived interest in complying with international law per se. It explains that this is at odds with the authors' subjective approach to state interests, and essentially guarantees their conclusion that international law compliance is solely instrumental. Furthermore, the article discusses the problem that the authors fail to engage with relevant scholarship that provides a counterpoint to theirs, in particular with regard to constructivism. On the basis of these critiques the review concludes that the book is flawed and cannot be considered to have made its case.     

Interpreting deindustrialised landscapes of Atlantic Canada: memory and industrial heritage in Sackville, New Brunswick

The redevelopment of former industrial sites now constitutes a significant component of the landscape of Atlantic Canada. This paper explores the heritage issues surrounding two industrial sites in Sackville, New Brunswick, and argues that the heritage discourse is constructed through the creation of memory and the processes of commodification and consumption. Using the examples of two foundries, the paper investigates the manner in which the image of industry has been presented and reinterpreted, both through the industrial heydays of the late‐19th and mid‐20th centuries and in the contemporary scene. The commemoration, commodification and consumption of selected aspects of the industrial past are significant means by which Sackville creates its place identity. The resulting landscapes remain problematic, however, with a tendency to be overly romanticised and sanitised or at odds with contemporary images of Sackville's place identity. Le réaménagement d'anciennes friches industrielles constitue aujourd'hui une importante composante du paysage des provinces atlantiques du Canada. Le présent article explore les questions patrimoniales entourant deux sites de ce type à Sackville (Nouveau‐Brunswick) et formule l'hypothèse que le discours à saveur patrimoniale repose sur la création d'une mémoire et des processus de réification et de consommation. À partir de deux fonderies utilisées comme exemple, l'article examine comment l'image de l'industrie a été présentée et réinterprétée, tant à l'époque de gloire de l'industrialisation de la fin du XIXe siècle et du milieu du XXe siècle que sur la scène contemporaine. La commémoration, la réification et la consommation d'aspects choisis du passé industriel constituent d'importants moyens par lesquels Sackville crée son identité. Les paysages qui en résultent demeurent problématiques et ont tendance àêtre exagérément romantiques et aseptisés, voire même contradictoires par rapport aux images contemporaines de l'identité de Sackville.     

The Politics of Caring for the Poor: Anglican Responses in 1890s Tasmania

Relieving poverty amongst skilled but unemployed workers during the Tasmanian economic collapse in the 1890s challenged both a conservative government's policy of avoiding public debt by initiating minimal relief and the limited financial and human resources of voluntary philanthropic agencies, the Anglican Church amongst them, whom the Tasmanian governments expected to carry the burden of delivering relief to those deemed to deserve it. With labour organisations too weak to lead, and amidst the silence of church leaders, it fell to individuals like the Reverend Archibald Turnbull to articulate a Christian socialist critique of government policies and values and to advocate the desperate plight of the poor. In this context, this study examines how contemporary government and Anglican Church leaders responded to Turnbull's political and pastoral initiatives in Hobart in 1893–96.