SOLDERING WITH GOLD ALLOYS IN ANCIENT SOUTH AMERICA: EXAMINATION OF TWO SMALL GOLD STUDS FROM ECUADOR

This paper presents the results of electron microprobe analysis of two gold studs, and their associated gold alloy solders. from La Tolita in Ecuador. Metallographic and compositional data are presented and the types of solders used are discussed.     

The Agency of Dolphins: Towards Inter‐species Embassies as Sites of Engagement with ‘Significant Otherness’

Cetacean–human interaction, at sites where free‐ranging dolphins approach humans, is occurring more than ever before. Management policies and strategies, and their underlying research, intended to protect both dolphins and humans during these interactive events, affect the quality and nature of interactivity. The agency of the dolphins, and its representation in management schemes, is analysed using Critical Discourse Analysis of selected texts from the discourse of Dolphin–Human Interaction Management (DHIM). Analysis suggests a prevailing discourse of protectionism but also reveals the possibility for a new kind of management scheme based upon an acceptance of the ‘significant otherness’ of non‐human species. This can be achieved by means of inter‐species etiquette, acknowledging the choices made by non‐humans to interact with humans. An inter‐species etiquette, coupled with multi‐species education (education across species boundaries, designed and delivered so as to enable mutually beneficial interaction), offers those non‐human animals widely referred to as ‘ambassadors’ safe places in which to be encountered. This new form of inter‐species interaction space is named an ‘embassy’.     

When is a nation ‘a nation’? Identity‐formation within a French West Indian people (Martinique)*

ABSTRACT. Nationhood is usually considered a subjective state of being acquired by a self‐conscious group sharing cultural distinctiveness and political goals. Social scientists and historians also endeavor to delineate objective factors that impart national status to minority peoples. Rarely do the elected officials of a non‐sovereign people have the opportunity to vote on whether or not their constituency constitutes a discrete nation. The extraordinary Congress of 2002 in Martinique did provide such an opportunity, however. The contradictory outcomes of that seminal event – including the plebiscite one year later on a proposed change of status for this Caribbean island within the French Republic – reveal much about the ambiguous status of Martinican group identity. They also underline the need for theoreticians of nationalism to take into account politically and culturally specific understandings of the very concept of ‘nation’. That a formerly colonised people may materially benefit disproportionately from ongoing institutional relationships with its former colonial power – countercolonialism – also needs to be considered.     

In from the margins? The changing place of Africa in International Relations

This article surveys recent literature on Africa and International Relations (IR) and reviews the current place of Africa within the discipline. It notes that critical debates continue around claims of a mismatch between Africa and ‘mainstream’ IR theories and concepts. However, alongside this set of issues, there is in fact a burgeoning literature on many aspects of Africa's international relations. While some of these studies utilize existing IR theories, and others explore empirical cases that could deliver important lessons for the wider discipline, much of this promise goes unfulfilled. The article reviews literature on China's role and on HIV/AIDS governance in Africa to illustrate how the study of African international relations, the wider IR discipline and international policy could all benefit from a closer engagement between Africa and IR. The article concludes by setting out three challenges for a renewed agenda: a need to address the problematic relationship between universal analytical concepts and regional particularities; a need to give recognition to, and analyse, African agency in international politics; and a need to address inequalities in knowledge production in the field of Africa's international relations.