New Data on Egyptian Construction Methods in the Khufu I Vessel (c.2566 BC) from the Paul Lipke Collection

A review of the Lipke collection raises new questions concerning Egyptian boatbuilding methods for the Khufu I vessel, including the shaping of planking, the purpose, fitting, and spacing of cross‐grain mortise‐and‐tenon joints and the crafting and securing of hook‐scarfs in girders. New data supports the author's contention that the construction of this vessel was abruptly terminated, but contradicts his suggestion that the central girder had no hook‐scarf—it does, but it is unique. Furthermore, detailed plans show how the hood‐ends, sleeves, and papyriform decorations were crafted and joined. A planking‐plan with scale does not always agree with published data. © 2010 The Author     

Policy Coherence and Policy Domains

Policy scholars generally agree that greater coherence of policies is desirable, but the concept is under-theorized and has received little empirical examination. This research examines the policy coherence of 18 policy domains and considers institutional factors that affect variation among them. There is considerable variation in coherence among substantive, regional, and identity-based policy domains. Greater degrees of policy coherence exist for policy domains that have dominant congressional committees or have more involvement of lead federal agencies. These findings extend what policy scholars know about policy subsystems in American policymaking to consideration of the coherence of policy domains.     

Modernization,colonialism, and the new anthropology of sport

Abstract

Anthropologists Niko Besnier, Susan Brownell, and Thomas Carter have recently contributed a theoretically- and empirically-updated account of sport anthropology, the burgeoning, heterogenous, productive field dedicated to the myriad forms of sport and physical activity in human societies. This essay dialogically relates their contribution with previous conceptions of sport anthropology to better understand the interconnections between global and local contexts of physical culture and the relations between anthropological inquiry and important issues like social power, biopolitics, and colonialism. The essay specifically highlights the authors’ contextualization of assumptions of modernization and categorizations of “primitive” and “pre-modern” sport, arguing that a postcolonial approach to sport anthropology results in a more inclusive, nuanced framework for studying the anthropological dimensions of physical culture.     

Patterns of fertility change in Ghana: a time and space perspective

This article examines fertility change in Ghana based on a time and space perspective. The sample draws on three birth cohorts of women born in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, resident in five distinct societies selected from three settlements in Ghana. The findings of the study show that fertility change is occurring in a socioeconomic and geographically distinct manner. Significant fertility declines are traced to the 1960 birth cohorts in all the study areas. For the 1970 cohort this decline continues in the elite areas whereas the urban indigenous areas exhibit a rise in teenage fertility which is not, however, followed by higher fertility after the age of 20. In the rural area fertility rises from the 1960 to the 1970 cohort up to age 24, which is the end point of study for this cohort. The spatial variability between the five study areas has profound implications for the ongoing fertility change in Ghana and Sub-Saharan Africa.     

On face transplantation: Ethical slippage and quiet death in experimental biomedicine (Respond to this article at http://www.therai.org.uk/at/debate)

More and more teams around the globe are gaining ethical clearance to perform face transplant surgery. The operation is a highly experimental medical treatment and patients who are otherwise healthy are dying as a consequence of submitting themselves to the operation. This article is concerned with the quiet deaths and ethical slippages that are emerging in this new medical terrain. It suggests that an examination of the relationship between nationalism and medical advancement is necessary to understand this slippage, because inter alia the surgery has been afforded national significance.