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.     

Transnational Xenophobia in Europe? Literary Representations of Contemporary Fears

Does an enlarged Europe harbor an enlarged fear of foreigners? Has EU expansion produced a bizarre, unintentional convergence in the xenophobic attitudes of eastern and western Europeans? What is the texture of this xenophobia in the different parts of Europe? This article is divided into three parts. First, it summarizes the contemporary European debate on fear of foreigners, antipathy towards immigrants, and the effort to enforce boundaries of national belonging. Second, it provides empirical evidence about national phobias using Germany and Poland as examples. Finally, it assays literary representations of European fears construed by select contemporary playwrights and novelists. The article proposes that the drama of European xenophobia is most effectively captured in the works of European writers, not in the discourse of EU leaders or social scientists.     

A Classical Foundation-Legend from Newfoundland

HANDBOOK OF EUROPEAN NATIONAL DANCES. Ed. VIOLET ALFORD. 24 vols., 1949–1952. Max Parrish and Company, for the Royal Academy of Dancing and the Ling Physical Education Association. Price 4s. 6d. each. Reviewed by Allan Gomme.

SPANISH COSTUME. EXTRAMADURA. RUTH MATILDA ANDERSON, Member of the Hispanic Society of America, New York 1951. Reviewed by Estella Canziani.

THE SACRED STATE OF THE AKAN. By EVA L. R. MEYEROWITZ. Faber &; Faber, 1951. Pp. 222, plates 100. 42s. Reviewed by Mary Danielli.

ENGLISH INN SIGNS. Being a revised and modernized version of Larwood and Hotten's History of Signboards. 1951. Chatto and Windus. 42s. Reviewed by Leslie F. Newman.

THE TRUTH ABOUT ROBIN HOOD. By P. VALENTINE HARRIS (London: Published by the author, 1951). 93 pp. 8s. 6d. Reviewed by J. B. Bessinger.     

A West African ‘Fashoda’: Expanding Trade,Colonial Rivalries and Insurrection in the Côte d'Ivoire/Gold Coast Borderlands: The Assikasso Crisis of 1897–98

The story of the ‘Scramble for Africa’ goes deeper than the mere arbitration of boundaries and the partition of colonies and territories. Less well understood are the complex ways in which Atlantic-based commercial capitalism and imperialism generated new sources of African wealth at regional and district levels and yet simultaneously aggravated intra-ethnic trade rivalries and personal aggrandizement by warlords, which led in turn to both African inter-state violence and armed anti-colonial insurrections on the Côte d'Ivoire/Gold Coast frontier that frustrated European territorial conquest and efforts towards political stabilization.