‘Washing men's feet’: gender,care and migration in Albania during and after communism

This article compares the interrelationships between gender, family structures and intra-family care arrangements during two markedly different periods of Albania's recent history. The first of these, the communist era, was dominated by the autocratic state-socialist regime of Enver Hoxha. In contrast, the post-communist period that followed was characterised by a kind of reactive free-for-all capitalism and high rates of both internal and international migration, the latter mostly to Greece and Italy. Families have been torn apart by this mass emigration, resulting in husbands separated from their wives and children, and older generations left behind by their migrant children. All this contrasts with family, residential and care arrangements during the communist period when not only were families generally living in close proximity, but also state welfare was available to support vulnerable and isolated individuals. Across these periods, however, the burden of care responsibilities fell almost wholly on women, despite the egalitarian ideology of the socialist era and the potentially modernising and empowering effects of post-socialist migration on the agency of women. The article provides a valuable lesson in historicising regimes of gender, family and care across dramatically contrasting social models.     

New light on early caprine herding strategies from isotope analysis: a case study from Neolithic Anatolia

The measurement of stable carbon (δ¹³C) and nitrogen (δ¹⁵N) isotopes of caprine bone collagen from the Neolithic sites of Çatalhöyük and Aşıklı Höyük in south-central Anatolia have allowed examination of exploitation and herding practices of sheep and goats. The isotope values from protodomestic caprines at Aşıklı Höyük suggests that these animals were consuming very similar foods to each other and were all confined to the same or similar environments with no access to C₄ plants. At Çatalhöyük, the results show how the caprine management strategy develops from the strategy seen at Aşıklı Höyük into a more varied practice at an early stage as the site grows with an increasing dietary contribution obtained from C₄ plants. No change in diet is isotopically discernible at Aşıklı Höyük. Interestingly, no distinction could be made between the diets of sheep and goats at either site. Therefore, such studies are a useful method of examining the development of early herding or management strategies of caprines in the Near East.     

Barrister gender and litigant success in the High Court of Australia

We examine the relationship between gender of the barrister and appeal outcomes on the High Court of Australia. We find that an appellant represented in oral argument by a female barrister, opposed to a respondent represented in oral argument by a male barrister, is less likely to receive a High Court justice's vote. However, we also find that the appellant disadvantage of having a female barrister present oral argument is (partially) offset in the case of liberal justices and on panels having a higher proportion of female justices. The extent to which the disadvantage is offset, and potentially turns from being a disadvantage to an advantage, depends on the degree to which the justice is liberal and the proportion of female justices on the panel.

本文探讨律师性别与诉讼结果之间的关系。我们发现这个过程并不对称。如果是由女律师上诉,而辩方是一个或一个以上男性律师,那么性别就是一个因素。不过并不存在相反的情况。我们具体发现,如果诉方是一个女律师,辩方为一男律师,诉方就不大可能获得最高法官的赞同。不过,我们还发现,如果法官具有自由主义精神,如果法官团的女性比例较高,那么女律师的不利情形就有可能被（部分地）抵消。被抵消的程度取决于法官自由精神的强弱,和法官团女性比例的大小。     

A Minimum-Impact Method for Measuring Corrosion Rate of Steel-Hulled Shipwrecks in Seawater

Current research on USS Arizona is focused on a minimum-impact technique for calculating corrosion rate of the battleship's steel hull by analysing physical and chemical properties of marine encrustation covering the exposed hull. An equation is derived that allows concretion thickness, density, and total iron content to be used to calculate corrosion rate of steel hull plate.
© 2006 The Authors