The hunted hunter: the capture of a lion (Panthera leo fossilis) at the Gran Dolina site,Sierra de Atapuerca,Spain

Many Pleistocene caves and rock shelters contain evidence of carnivore and human activities. For this reason, it is common to recover at these sites faunal remains left by both biological agents. In order to explain the role that carnivores play at the archaeological sites it is necessary to analyse several elements, such as the taxonomical and skeletal representation, the age profiles, the ratio of NISP to MNI, the anthropogenic processing marks on the carcasses (location and purpose of cutmarks and burning and bone breakage patterns), carnivore damage (digested bones, location and frequencies of toothmarks and bone breakage), length of the long bones, frequencies of coprolites and vertical distribution of the faunal remains, inter alia. From this, the documentation of carnivores in a faunal assemblage with a clear anthropogenic component can be understood from three main phenomena: (1) the carnivores as accumulators and the use of the site as a den; (2) carnivores as scavengers of hominid refuse and; (3) carnivores as hominids’ prey. Of these three phenomena, the last one is the least documented at the Middle Pleistocene sites. From this perspective, here we present the case of the anthropogenic use of a lion (Panthera leo fossilis) from level TD10-1 of Gran Dolina (MIS 9, Sierra de Atapuerca, Burgos, Spain). The lion bone remains show signs of direct interaction between this big cat and human groups that occupied Gran Dolina in these chronologies. From this perspective, the aim of this paper is to contribute to the knowledge of the role developed by large carnivores in the anthropogenic contexts and to provide data on human use of these predators at the European Middle Pleistocene sites.     

Parental death as a vital conjuncture? Intergenerational care and responsibility following bereavement in Senegal

This article explores the ways that parental death represents a ‘vital conjuncture’ for Serer young people that reconfigures and potentially transforms intergenerational caring responsibilities in different spatial and temporal contexts. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with young people (aged 15–27 years), family members, religious and community leaders and professionals in rural and urban Senegal, I explore young people's responses to parental death. ‘Continuing bonds’ with the deceased were expressed through memories evoked in homespace, shared family practices and gendered responsibilities to ‘take care of’ bereaved family members, to cultivate inherited farmland and to fulfil the wishes of the deceased. Parental death could reconfigure intergenerational care and lead to shifts in power dynamics, as eldest sons asserted their position of authority. While care-giving roles were associated with agency, the low social status accorded to young women's paid and unpaid domestic work undermined their efforts. The research contributes to understandings of gendered nuances in the experience of bereavement and continuing bonds and provides insight into intra-household decision-making processes, ownership and control of assets. Analysis of the culturally specific meanings of relationships and a young person's social location within hierarchies of gender, age, sibling birth order and wider socio-cultural norms and practices is needed.     

Where are the roofs? A geo-ethnoarchaeological study of mud brick structures and their collapse processes,focusing on the identification of roofs

Unlike floors that have been given a lot of attention in archaeological research, the study of roofs is long neglected. Here, we present a study of modern abandoned and burnt mud brick structures, conducted in southern Israel and northern Greece. Using macroscopic observations and interviews together with micromorphology, mineralogical, phytolith, and phosphate analyses, we show that roofs should be sought in close proximity to floors. We show that roofs practically seal activity remains on floors; thus, the importance of identifying roofs in the archaeological record lies mainly with the ability to estimate the integrity of floors and floor assemblages. While human behavior and maintenance practices are major factors in the deposition of primary activity remains on floors, the timing of roof collapse determines how well activity remains will be preserved. In addition, we show that the roof plays a major role in the degradation process of mud structures as wall degradation is enhanced after the collapse of the roof resulting in accumulation of mud brick degradation material on top of the collapsed roof. As most roofs in antiquity seem to have been composed of degradable vegetal materials, we found that not only they leave little evidence for their presence, but they also mix with vegetal activity remains. We therefore use the accumulation of mud brick debris as an indicator for the location of degraded roofs. Using microstratigraphy for the identification of both floors and roofs is significant in order to locate activity remains in the archaeological sedimentary sequence and to evaluate their state of preservation.     

Striking health workers: Precarity and healthcare in neoliberal Kenya

Precarity is increasingly a condition of life for Kenyan health workers as even professionals face costs of living and forms of debt that exceed their (unstable) salaries. Years of austerity and chronic scarcity have eroded healthcare infrastructures and rendered crises part of everyday work. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in Kenya from 2018 to 2020, we explore health workers’ experiences and concerns about the precarity of their working conditions, livelihoods, health and futures amidst the government's attempts to experiment with ‘universal health coverage’ (UHC) and improve access to healthcare. While UHC appears to call for greater state responsibility for healthcare futures, healthcare provision is being further outsourced and privatized, underlining that seemingly progressive health policies like UHC are sustaining and replicating neoliberal trends.     

Landlord Villages of Iran as Landscapes of Hierarchy and Control

This paper analyses the walled landlord villages of the Tehran Plain in terms of hierarchy and control, and how these structures are created and expressed through the spatial landscape of the villages. Drawing on original fieldwork, the ways in which landlords used the physicality of the villages to maintain and reinforce control over farmers is explored. We suggest that the “success” or at least longevity of the land tenure system in Iran prior to the later twentieth century can be attributed at least in part to the buildings and spaces of the villages themselves.     

‘For the Honor and Glory of the Jewish People‘: Arendt’s Ambivalent Jewish Nationhood

Observers of German-Jewish political theorist Hannah Arendt often disagree on her politics, yet many view her as a staunch early critic of Zionism. Whereas her criticism of Israel rendered her unpopular in the American-Jewish and Israeli communities for many decades after 1948, commentators more recently have come to see her perspective as a prescient assessment of the ills of Jewish nationalism. This interpretation, however, fails to grasp the complexity of Arendt‘s political views of Zionism in particular and of Jewish nationhood in general, which evolved over time and remained ambivalent from her early to her late works.     

Performing with words

Richard Bauman and Joel Sherzer, eds. Explorations in the Ethnography of Speaking. New York and London: Cambridge University Press, 1975. vii + 501 pp. Figures, tables, notes, references and index. $27.50 (cloth), $8.95 (paper).