South Korea’s North Korean Image Problem: Human Rights under the Spotlight

ABSTRACT

The 2014 United Nations Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in North Korea (UN COI) had a decisive impact on South Korea’s approach to North Korea’s human rights abuses in the several years following its release. This article interprets moves within South Korea to support the UN COI’s recommendations as taken in the interests of ontological security, or a stable sense of identity, which has also driven the state’s broader initiatives on image management and nation branding. It extends the boundaries of nation-branding research by considering why and how a state may adopt policies that enhance its moral visibility and reputation in world affairs. It considers how a positive reputation is enhanced by demonstrating good international citizenship, promoting the visibility of state identity parameters beyond its culture and core industries. This article interprets the South Korean government’s efforts to act on North Korean human rights following the UN COI, as well as the significance of being seen to be doing so at home and abroad as security-giving behaviour asserting its moral authority in relation to North Korea. It explores how a longstanding policy of relative silence on North Korea’s human rights record acceded to identity-driven pressures arising from the UN COI and influencing South Korea’s international image-management strategy between 2014 and 2017.     

Archaeological Studies of Cooking and Food Preparation

Foodways have been a component of archaeological research for decades. However, cooking and food preparation, as specific acts that could reveal social information about life beyond the kitchen, only became a focus of archaeological inquiry more recently. A review of the literature on cooking and food preparation reveals a shift from previous studies on subsistence strategies, consumption, and feasting. The new research is different because of the social questions that are asked, the change in focus to preparation and production rather than consumption, and the interest in highlighting marginalized people and their daily experiences. The theoretical perspectives the literature addresses revolve around practice, agency, and gender. As a result, this new focus of archaeological research on cooking and preparing food is grounded in anthropology.     

Innovation and tradition in the fourth century mosaic of the <Emphasis Type="Italic">Casa delle Bestie Ferite</Emphasis> in Aquileia,Italy: archaeometric characterisation of the glass tesserae

The present paper focuses on the archaeometric characterisation of 38 glass tesserae of various colours from an in situ mosaic in Aquileia, Italy, dated to the second half of the fourth century AD. The examination of the textural, mineralogical and chemical features, conducted by means of a multi-methodological approach (optical microscopy (OM), scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDS), electron probe micro analysis (EPMA), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fibre Optic Reflectance Spectrophotometer (FORS)), has provided valuable insights into the changes in the production technology during the transition between the Roman and the Late Antique periods. The assemblage is heterogeneous, and each chromatic group is composed of tesserae produced with different base glasses and colouring/opacifying techniques, suggesting diverse supplies. A small group of tesserae shows strict links to the Roman tradition in terms of both base glass and colouring/opacifying techniques and was probably obtained by re-using tesserae from older mosaics. Conversely, a larger group of tesserae shows textural and chemical evidence of recycling and indicates the prompt use of “new” opacifying technologies (such as the use of tin compounds) or uncommon technological solutions (such as the use of quartz and bubbles as opacifiers or the addition of metallurgical slags in red tesserae), suggesting a specific production in the fourth century AD.     

Analysis of the Size,Shape, and Modeled Age of Common Limpets (Patella vulgata) from Late Norse Middens at Sandwick,Unst, Shetland Islands,UK: Evidence for Anthropogenic and Climatic Impacts

Zooarchaeological faunal remains are commonly examined to investigate harvesting behavior. We determined limpet (Patella vulgata) shell size and shape, and estimated shell age from several middens at the Late Norse Sandwick South Site, Unst, Shetland, UK, whose strata represent distinct occupational phases (Phase 1: AD 1100–1200, Phase 2: AD 1200–1250, Phase 3: AD 1250–1350). Our goal was to determine if the many limpets found there could provide insight into Norse harvesting behavior. Shell length, conicity, and modeled age all declined between Phases 1 and 2, suggesting intensive, size-selective harvesting of limpets and a shift to harvesting lower in the intertidal zone between phases. Length and conicity varied in Phases 2 and 3 and no major changes seem to have occurred over these periods, indicating that harvesting maintained the limpet population at an impacted level throughout the later phases. The conicity decline between Phases 1 and 2 may also have been caused by increased storminess that accompanied the onset of the Little Ice Age. The mean length of modern limpet populations near the Norse site did not differ from the archaeological phases, but did vary among collection years. Limpets were 26% larger in 2015 than in 2012 and 2013, indicating that large interannual variations in population structure can occur over short time periods. Potentially the result of extreme storms removing small limpets, this result raises the possibility that size and conicity changes during the Sandwick South Site occupation, as well as in other early populations, could also be the result of environmental factors rather than human harvesting alone. We feel, however, that the most parsimonious explanation for the patterns we document is human harvesting.     

Refining the identification of native American pipestone quarries in the midcontinental United States

Midcontinental pipestone quarries in Missouri, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Ohio, and Kansas were utilized by a number of native cultures from 5000 YRBP through historic times. Except for Gunderson’s pioneering work on catlinite, the mineralogy of these sources was poorly understood until recently. For fifteen years, a University of Illinois team of archaeologists and geologists has used well-established mineralogical methods (X-ray diffraction [XRD] and reflectance near-infrared spectroscopy [NIS]) to identify and characterize nine pipestone quarries and match sources with archaeological artifacts from major Hopewell and Mississippian culture sites. NIS analyses of raw materials from nine major pipestone quarries show distinct mineralogical differences between sources but relatively uniform composition within each source. The major distinguishing minerals estimated from NIS spectra match very well with earlier results from XRD and inductively-coupled plasma (ICP) analyses. Results demonstrate that NIS is a reliable non-destructive technique for discriminating between midcontinental pipestones and for sourcing pipestone artifacts.     

Is sibling rivalry fatal?: siblings and mortality clustering

Evidence drawn from nineteenth-century Belgian population registers shows that the presence of similarly aged siblings competing for resources within a household increases the probability of death for children younger than five, even when controlling for the preceding birth interval and multiple births. Furthermore, in this period of Belgian history, such mortality tended to cluster in certain families. The findings suggest the importance of segmenting the mortality of siblings younger than five by age group, of considering the presence of siblings as a time-varying covariate, and of factoring mortality clustering into analyses.