A study of dimensional differences of tooth marks (pits and scores) on bones modified by small and large carnivores

The use of tooth mark sizes to infer carnivore types when analyzing the modification of faunal assemblages has been criticized on the base of intense overlap in tooth mark size among differently sized carnivores. The present study analyzes this overlap and presents some critical explanations for it. This work is based on the largest collection of tooth pit dimensional data collected to date for some of the most relevant carnivore types. The study empirically shows that small and large carnivores can be clearly differentiated when using tooth pit size, with a higher discrimination when using tooth marks on dense shafts than on cancellous ends. It is argued that most previous studies of tooth mark sizes have reproduced a higher overlap probably because sample sizes were small, and experiments were carried out using small carcasses (which require a smaller bite force) or for a combination of factors.     

Les critères de la radicalité en question : Le cas Poulain de la Barre

Early modern radicalism and its criteria are described and defined by Jonathan Israel in various works. Poulain de la Barre, one of the first modern feminist thinkers, first is used by Israel as an example of the so-called radical Enlightenment and finally is rejected as such. This case study exhibed the necessity of questionning the coherence of the required criteria for defining a « radical » thinker, especially when examinating carefully the last paragraph of Spinoza’s Political Treatise.     

The Mobile Politics of Emotions and Social Movement in Oaxaca,Mexico

In light of recent debates between affect and emotions in geography, this article focuses on how the emotional landscape of spatial struggles in Oaxaca articulated people together, thereby generating solidarities and a collective sociality offering the potentiality of interconnection that geographers of affect emphasize. Through an analysis of a women's march, I demonstrate how social movements move people, mobilizing them both physically and emotionally, with effects that go beyond a movement's political demands. Engaging with how emotions do movement‐building work means going beyond a focus on the relational construction of emotions and arguing instead for their collective agency, including their power to transform participants into activists. Highlighting the centrality of spatial struggles and emotions to the shifting, mobile politics of social movements brings into sharp relief the importance of a situated, historical analysis for theorists romanticizing the emancipatory possibilities of a revolutionary transnational articulation between social movements.     

A Neolithic Case of Mesomelic Dysplasia from Northern Switzerland

Paleopathological cases of skeletal dysplasias (SD) are particularly interesting from a biological as well as biocultural perspective. Evidence of SD is relevant when discussing the antiquity of specific mutations, as well as the social perception of disease in the past. Here we propose a differential diagnosis for a Neolithic case of SD and discuss the possible social correlates of the observed condition. The subject of this study, a child with an age at death of about 12 years from the Late Neolithic site of Schweizersbild (Northern Switzerland), presents a bilateral shortening of the forearm and lower leg, with no further modifications affecting the cranial and postcranial skeleton. Morphological, metric, as well as radiographic analyses point to a diagnosis of Léri Weill dyschondrosteosis (LWD), making the present case the earliest known paleopathological example of this condition. From a biocultural perspective, the skeletal changes affecting the child, together with her/his relatively advanced age, suggest active support from the community, providing new data to inform the debate on the cultural dimensions of disease in prehistory. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

O deslocamento de interesses da Índia para o Brasil durante a União Ibérica: mapas e relatos

This paper proposes the insertion of cartographic production about the Portuguese possessions into a wider context of interests and need for information experienced by the Hapsburgs during the Iberian Union (1580–1640). I focus on two documents, compiled as a result of two requests made by the monarchs who wished to learn about their domains in India and Brazil: the 1612 Livro que dá razão do Estado do Brasil, written by Captain Diogo Campos Moreno, with maps by João Teixeira Albernaz I, and the Livro das Plantas de todas as fortalezas, cidades e povoações do Estado da Índia oriental, dated 1635, by the official chronicler of the Estado da India, Antonio Bocarro, with city views usually attributed to Pedro Barreto de Resende.

These texts and maps show a shift of interests from India to Brazil. They incorporate the various aspects that the authors considered relevant, interesting or representative of the Portuguese presence in these spaces. At the same time, the royal orders that gave rise to these surveys bring some elements that give specificity to each region, but emphasize the effort to standardize the information and to ensure a common administration over different areas of the empire.