A compositional perspective on the origins of the “Nasca cult” at Cahuachi

We provide a compositional perspective on the origins of the Cahuachi cult in Nasca, south coast of Peru. Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis of ceramics from the Formative site of La Puntilla demonstrate that a small group of pottery known as Nasca 1 blackwares are compositionally consistent with Early Nasca polychromes originating at Cahuachi. These data suggest that the patterns of pilgrimage and group ceremonies exhibited at Cahuachi during Early Nasca began at least in the proto-Nasca phase of Nasca 1 during the Formative. We use these data to further document the Paracas to Nasca transition, a complex and dynamic period in south coastal prehistory.     

Participatory Feedback and Dissemination with and for Children: Reflections from Research with Young Migrants in Southern Africa

In this contribution we discuss the process of feedback and dissemination that we adopted following research with children affected by AIDS in southern Africa. We outline our reasons for engaging in detailed feedback and dissemination, distinguishing between active or passive processes and discuss the participatory methods we adopted. Through our reflections we consider feedback as an obligation to participants and dissemination as a potential agent of social change. In addition we evaluate the effectiveness with which we were able to truly incorporate the voices of young people in our dissemination and relinquish control of the outcomes to make them available for action among policy-makers. In conclusion we highlight that active dissemination, although not able to guarantee that research recommendations will be acted upon, at the very least opens dialogue and enhances understanding among those able to implement action.     

Metapodial asymmetry in draft cattle

Traction work by oxen has been well documented in various pictorial and written sources throughout human history. Analysis of metapodial dimensions has been carried out with the aim of quantifying asymmetry related to sexual dimorphism, body size and possibly heavy duty traction work. A modern reference sample of 103 animals from Hungary and Rumania has been used for this purpose. Bone measurements were correlated with bone density and morphological characteristics in order to make the results applicable for the identification of remains from draft cattle in archaeozoological assemblages. Asymmetry is more pronounced in the thoracic extremity and metacarpals of older or heavier animals, sometimes showing excessive widening of the third, medial ray within the fused bone. Relative broadening is also intensive in the distal end of medial metatarsals of cows and oxen. The bone mineral content of the medial carpal region attains mature density first. The weight of phalanges increases for a longer time in the laterally located toes.     

Book reviews—comptes rendus

Themes in Political History—Thèmes en histoire politique

Peter BLICKLE ed., Resistance, Representation and Community, Oxford University Press, Origins of the Modern State in Europe, 13th‐18th Centuries Series, Oxford, 1997, 401 pp. ISBN 0–19–820548–1. £50.00.

J. L. MERRITT ed., The Political World of Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford 1621–1641, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1996, 307 pp. ISBN 0–521–560–411. £40.00.

Themes in Napoleonic Studies—Etudes sur Napoléon

Malcolm CROOK, Napoleon comes to power: Democracy and Dictatorship in Revolutionary France, 1795–1804, University of Wales Press, Cardiff, 1998 ISBN 0–7083–1461–9 (hardback) £15.00, ISBN 0–7083–1401–5 (paperback) £7.95.

Christopher PRENDERGAST, Napoleon and History Painting. Antoine‐Jean Gros's La Bataille d'Eylau, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1997, xiv + 223 pp., ISBN 0–19–817402–0 £45.00.

Matthew TRUESDELL, Spectacular Politics. Louis‐Napoleon Bonaparte and the Fête Impériale, 1849–1870, Oxford University Press Oxford, 1997, viii + 238 pp., ISBN 0–19–510689‐X £35.00.

Themes in Twentieth‐Century History—Aspects de l'histoire du vingtième siècle

Götz ALY, Macht‐Geist‐Wahn. Kontinuitäten deutschen Denkens, Argon, Berlin, 1997, 220pp., ISBN 3–87024–361–9.

Holger H. HERWIG, The First World War: Germany and Austria‐Hungary 1914–1918, Modern Wars, Arnold, London, 1997, xx + 490 pp. ISBN 0–340–67753–8 (hb), 0–340–57348–1 (pb) £16.99.

Lonnie R. JOHNSON, Central Europe: Enemies, Neighbours, Friends, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1996, xi + 339 pp., ISBN 0–19–510071–9 (hardback) £27.00. 0–19–510072–7 (paperback) £15.00.

Iwao Peter SANO, One Thousand days in Siberia: The Odyssey of a Japanese‐American POW, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln and London, 1997, xvii + 210pp., ill., ISBN 0–8032–4262‐X £23.95.

Martin THOMAS, Britain, France and Appeasement: Anglo‐French Relations in the Popular Front Era, Berg, Oxford, 1996, x + 268pp., ISBN 1–85973–192–9 £29.95 and £12.95.     

The Archaeology of El Niño Events and Other “Natural” Disasters

Archaeological research on disasters has increased substantially since Sheets's 1980 review of the topic, and with heightened media coverage and funding for the study of such events, archaeological interest will continue to grow. This paper examines how prehistorians have incorporated disasters into their research since 1980, using the literature on El Niño as an illustrative case, and assesses this work in relation to geographical approaches to disaster as well as concepts that have been developed within the new ecologies.     

Degrees of Engagement: Using Cultural Worldviews to Explain Variations in Public Preferences for Engagement in the Policy Process

Scholars have been studying the concept of public engagement and its role in the policy process for some time. Scholars have argued that understanding the interests and motivations of the public and engaging them in the decision‐making process can lead to better policy designs and, ultimately, better policy outcomes. However, studies of public engagement often assume that people have a desire to get involved in the policy process. This paper tests this key assumption using the case of nuclear facility siting in the United States to ask: what factors influence an individual's stated willingness to want to engage in the policy process? Using data from a national web survey fielded in 2013, we ask the public if and to what extent they would likely engage in the siting process if given the opportunity. Findings indicate that the likelihood of engagement varies rather substantially across individuals. We find that an individual's cultural belief system and existing level of political activity account for some of this variation. These findings suggest that public engagement programs may vary across groups and communities. In other words, the prospects of engagement are likely to appeal to some members of the population and not others.     

The European Union as a Gated Community: The Two‐faced Border and Immigration Regime of the EU

Abstract: Within the European Union, an internal liberalisation of cross‐border labour mobility for EU citizens is currently being combined with the tightening of control and management efforts at the external borders. At the same time, attempts are being made to strategically select immigrants from new member states as well as from outside the EU who will be of economic value. In this paper we argue that by implementing such protectionist and selective immigration policy, the EU has come to resemble a gated community in which the bio‐political control and management of immigration is, to a large extent, the product of fear. Often fear manifests itself in terms of fear of losing material gain, eg the anxiety of losing economic welfare or public security. More often, however, this fear relates to the entrance of the immigrant, the stranger and is, as such, associated with a fear of losing a community's self‐defined identity. These perceived threats to a community's comfort lead to the politicisation of protection, whereby the terra incognita beyond the border is justifiably neglected due to the indifference and the intentional blindness shown to the outside. Hiding in a gated community in order to protect this comfort zone and trying to exclude outsiders, ‘Others’, from the community, is not only in vain since the desire for completion of the Self can never be fulfilled, but what remains still more troublesome, is that this tendency will sustain and reproduce global inequality and segregation, both in the material as well as symbolic sense.