Tooth Wear Related to Marine Foraging,Agro‐Pastoralism and the Formative Transition on the Northern Chilean Coast

Occlusal surface wear scores were examined in a sample of 200 Formative period (1500 bc–ad 500) skeletons from the lower Azapa Valley in northwest Chile. Wear rate and plane (angle) were additionally evaluated using a subsample of paired first and second mandibular molars. The Formative period represents the transition from marine foraging to agro‐pastoral dependence in the region, and differences in oral pathology indicate that diet varied by site location (coast vs valley interior) but not by archaeological phase (early vs late). We predicted that occlusal wear would demonstrate similar patterns, resulting from differences in food consistency, and therefore hypothesised that in coastal groups consuming greater quantities of foraged foods, occlusal surfaces should wear faster and exhibit flat molar wear, whereas among valley interior groups consuming greater quantities of agro‐pastoral products, these should wear slower but exhibit more angled molar wear. Heavier posterior tooth wear was identified among coastal residents, but rate and angle of molar occlusal attrition did not differ significantly by location. Heavier overall wear and a steeper molar wear plane were identified during the early phase indicating that food consistency varied somewhat over the course of the Formative period. Overall, the results indicate that, although limited differences in tooth wear exist by site location, wear varied more over time likely reflecting a gradual transition from foraging to agro‐pastoral dependence in the lower Azapa Valley. Although oral health indicators point to differences in dietary investment by location, maintenance of a mixed subsistence economy likely sustained a comparative consistency of foodstuffs. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Feasts and gifts: sharing food in the middle ages

This essay introduces a special issue of the Journal of Medieval History on feasting and gifts of food from the early middle ages through to the early modern period. It discusses the tensions between hierarchy and community, largesse and luxury in the feast, and the continued importance of communal eating throughout the medieval period.     

Book reviews

Louise Overacker: Australian Parties in a Changing Society: 1945–67, F. W. Cheshire, Melbourne, 1968. pp. xi + 337, $3.95.

P. Y. Medding: From Assimilation to Group Survival: A Political and Sociological Study of an Australian Jewish Community, F. W. Cheshire, Melbourne, 1968, pp. 309 + xiii, $6.00.

John R. Williams: John Latham and the Conservative Recovery from Defeat 1929–1931, APSA Monograph 10, Sydney, 1969, pp. 28, 50 cents from APSA, School of Political Science, University of N.S.W., P.O. Box 1, Kensington, N.S.W. 2033.

L. G. Churchward: Contemporary Soviet Government, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, 1968, pp. 366 + xix, $6.65.

A. R. Hall: The Stock Exchange of Melbourne and the Victorian Economy 1852–1900, A.N.U. Press, Canberra, 1968, pp. 267 + xiii, $7.95.

A. L. May: The Battle for the Banks, Sydney University Press, 1968, $5.00.

Robin Gollan: The Commonwealth Bank of Australia: Origins and Early History, Canberra, Australian National University Press, 1968, pp. vii + 179, $5.00.

Ronald F. Stinnett: Democrats, Dinners and Dollars, The Iowa State University Press, Ames (Iowa), 1967, pp. 310, $6.30. University of Sydney.

P. N. Troy, ed.: Urban Redevelopment in Australia, Research School of Social Sciences, A.N.U., pp. 441.     

Mongol inhospitality, or how to do more with less? Gift giving in William of Rubruck’s Itinerarium

This article examines the journey to the Mongol court by the Franciscan William of Rubruck and his unsuccessful attempts to negotiate his way through the Mongol hierarchy with gifts of food. Using William of Rubruck’s account of his journey, the Itinerarium, this article analyses the utility of gifts of food across different cultural contexts. Rubruck ultimately gained status among the Mongols through his ‘gift of self’, demonstrating how social standing can be negotiated through finding the appropriate cultural grammar for gift giving. Pervasive western medieval views on gift giving were not uncontested: alternate views of what constituted a gift existed within the broader thirteenth-century world.     

Nuutauniq (Moves in Inuit Life): Arctic Transformations and the Politics of Urban Inuit Mobility

ABSTRACT

Today, one in four Inuit live outside of Inuit Nunangat, the Arctic territory incorporating the four northern Inuit land claims regions. With the majority of those Inuit living in cities, the issue of urban Inuit populations is becoming a more prominent focus for policy debate. In this article, I argue that urban Inuit mobility is a historically complex and multilayered phenomenon embedded in, not detached from, the major processes of social transformation affecting Inuit across the Canadian Arctic from the mid-twentieth century on. I use this analysis to explore the diverse formulation of Inuit-specific policy initiatives in Montreal, a task that, I show, is made easier by the Montreal Inuit radio show called Nipivut.     

Carnelian,agate, and other types of chalcedony: the prehistory of Jebel al‐Ma'taradh and its semi‐precious stones,Emirate of Ra's al‐Khaimah

The Jebel al‐Ma'taradh and its surroundings contain exceptional deposits of lithic raw materials, including flint and chert, but especially chalcedony, agate, carnelian, and chrysoprase. These deposits were intensively exploited during the Neolithic, and some of the artefacts produced entered the trade network that included settlements on the coast and inland, sometimes as far as 300 km. During earlier periods, probably as early as the Pleistocene, only flint was used. Between the sixth and the fourth millennia, carnelian and agate were exploited to make beads, which are found in the necropolises and settlements of the UAE.