Pre-Clovis in Texas? A critical assessment of the “Buttermilk Creek Complex”

Lithic artifacts from the lowest strata of the Debra L. Friedkin site, located on Buttermilk Creek in central Texas, have been interpreted as an undisturbed pre-Clovis assemblage (Waters et al., 2011a). Stone tools and debitage were recovered from sediments stratified just below diagnostic Clovis artifacts and dated by OSL to between 13.2 and >15.5 cal kya. Invoking commonly observed cultural and natural site formation processes, we offer an alternative explanation of the “Buttermilk Creek Complex” as a Clovis assemblage in secondary association with the dated sediments.     

‘It broadens your view of being Basque’: identity through history,branding, and cultural policy

The purpose of the paper is to address what is the impact of the synthesis between Basque history, branding identity and Law 8/1994 on Basque identity in the homeland and Diaspora. Naturally occurring brands combine history, anthropology, sociology, and marketing to explain the phenomenon of communities defined by a sense of place. Focusing on both the Basque Country and Basques in Boise, Idaho as one case study, the authors discuss how the naturally occurring brand and cultural policy of the Basque people became formalized 20?years ago with Law 8/1994. The article addresses who the Basques are and how they have branded themselves through language, place, industry, food, drink, and culture. Similarities to other communities are explored so that other ethnic/cultural communities can learn from this Diaspora cultural policy discussion.     

The Heroic Outlaw in Irish Folklore and Popular Literature

As a symbolic figure in Irish folklore and popular literature, the outlaw embodies folk morality in conflict with the self-interest and inequity of the state. In the aftermath of British colonisation, the Irish outlaw is represented as more than a criminal. He provides a hero through whom ordinary Irishmen and women can vicariously enjoy brief victories, and imagine their collective dignity in the midst of political defeat and its consequences. Legends, ballads and chapbooks portraying the outlaw are the products of hard-pressed people representing themselves to themselves, reflecting on their strengths and weaknesses, and contemplating issues of morality and justice.