Large Kombewa flake production in north Oman

In this paper we present the results of surveys carried out in February 2016 along a palaeo‐drainage system near the village of Bisyah. We report first on the geological prospection, which was our main goal, and then present our discovery of the only known localities in north Oman of large Kombewa flake production (>10 cm up to 20 cm). Among the scatter of artefacts, we found cores and large Kombewa flakes with two opposed bulbs of percussion, a technology that had not been known in this region until now. In spite of the local features, the typo‐technological traits of the artefacts suggest that at least part of them resemble in some way the Acheulean techno‐complex, but there are still many questions remaining on the age of these artefacts.     

The gradual transformation of a weak but enduring regime: contemporary French prostitution policy in transition (1946–2016)

Historically, states have tended to opt for one of three prostitution policy regimes: prohibition, regulation or the abolition of state regulation with a view to providing social support to the individuals involved. This is the approach France has espoused since 1960. Nevertheless, while the state has remained committed to abolitionism, the policies and laws adopted in the name of French abolitionism have varied considerably. This coexistence of stability and change challenges current assumptions of how policy regimes behave and evolve. This is because internal policy change suggests that the regime is weak, and weak regimes that experience strong political challenges are assumed to wither away or collapse. Consequently, this article presents the historical case study of contemporary French prostitution policy, and seeks to explain how and why this policy regime has changed the way it has since World War II. It describes the three phases that have contributed to the evolution of policy in this area, from sex workers’ rights protests in the mid 1970s, to the introduction of a demand-side ban on prostitution in 2016. In doing so, it explains how strong commitment to policy ideas can help sustain an otherwise weak or ineffective policy regime.     

Twenty Years of Mobilising around AIDS in China: The Main Actors and Influences behind Organisational Growth

AIDS-related work and advocacy is one field that has spurred considerable activity among Chinese NGOs in the past two decades. This article explains processes leading to institutional changes that are necessary for allowing more NGOs to emerge and operate, and shows how international, domestic and local actors and influences have steered developments leading to organisational growth. The article applies new institutionalism theory and highlights differences between formal and informal institutions in explaining change and continuity for NGOs and their relations to state and government in this particular field.     

Indispensable Sons: Negotiating reproductive desires in rural Vietnam

The decline in fertility that has taken place in most countries of Asia over the past few decades has presented a challenge to demographic theory. While most families have shrunk considerably in size and the desire for only a few children is shared by most, the importance of producing a male child has persisted in some regions and strata of many Asian societies. The clash between the desire for only a few children and for a male child causes many individuals to experience conflicting reproductive aspirations, particularly women, who are generally held responsible for the sex of their children and whose status depends on their production of male heirs. Based on ethnographic material, I document the different strategies women in rural northern Vietnam use throughout their reproductive years in their quest to have a son. I discuss the construction of reproductive desires with special attention to the need for a son, as such need was the most central element of discourses on reproductive desire in the narratives collected. The article also elaborates on how women maneuver to negotiate these desires between different scales: the local, particularly family, kin and community members; the national, more specifically Vietnam's two-child family planning policy; and the global, with its notions of a good family and of ‘good quality’ children.

Hijos Indispensables: Negociando los deseos reproductivos en Vietnam rural

La disminución de fertilidad que ha ocurrido en la mayor parte de países asiáticos durante las últimas tres décadas ha planteado un desafió a la teoría demográfica. Mientras que la mayoría de familias se ha reducido el tamaño y desean menos hijos, en algunos regiones y estratos de las sociedades asiáticas la importancia de producir un niño masculino ha persistido. El choque entre el deseo de tener menos hijos y un niño masculino resulta en que muchos individuos tengan aspiraciones contradictorias de reproducción, en particular las mujeres quien se responsabilizan generalmente del sexo de sus hijos y también quien depende en la producción de herederos masculinos para su posición social. Haciendo uso de material etnográfica, documento las estrategias distintas que utilizan las mujeres del campo de Vietnam del Norte en sus búsquedas de tener un hijo durante sus años reproductivos. Discuto la construcción de deseos reproductivos, fijándose en la necesidad de un hijo, ya que aquella necesidad era el elemento más central de los discursos de deseos reproductivos en las narraciones recopiladas. Este artículo elabora también en cómo las mujeres manejan negociar estos deseos entre diferentes escalas: la local, especialmente la familia, parientes, y miembros de la comunidad; la nacional, mas específico, la política vietnamesa de dos hijos por familia; y el global, con sus ideas de la familia buena y de niños ‘bien educados’.     

The role of fire within Neolithic collective burials: Spatial analyses of cremains from the site of La Truie Pendue,France

The use of collective graves is one of the main features of the western European Late Neolithic. A single gravesite received the successive deposition of dozens or sometimes hundreds of individuals. While cremations or even full-fired inhumation layers are often found within these funerary deposits, the actual role of fire is still poorly understood. Recently discovered within the important archaeological complex of Passy (Yonne, France), the burned collective grave of La Truie-Pendue provides an outstanding case study to examine the use of fire within Neolithic funerary rites. In this study, we develop a new contextual approach to bone alterations in order to reconstruct the original circumstances of combustion and to examine cultural motivations for the use of fire. Results of spatial statistical analyses indicate that the fire event was the first step of a procedure that sealed the grave, closed the access to the dead and signaled the end of the grave's history. Similar sealing procedures were usual elsewhere during the Late Neolithic. Finally, this study demonstrates the value of using GIS as a tool to optimize taphonomic analyses of widely fragmented and commingled skeletal assemblages.     

Offspring sex preference in frontier America

Analysis of the fertility histories of women born between 1850 and 1900, as given in the Utah Population Database (UPDB), reveals the effect of the number, as well as the sex composition, of previous children on birth-stopping and birth-spacing decisions. Specifically, agricultural and Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) households—two sub-populations that might have placed different values on male and female children for economic, social, and/or cultural reasons—showed a distinct preference for male children, as expressed by birth stopping after the birth of a male child and shorter birth intervals in higher-parity births when most previous children were female. Remarkably, women in both the early "natural fertility" and the later contraceptive eras used spacing behavior to achieve a desired sex mix. Although the LDS population had relatively high fertility rates, it had the same preferences for male children as the non-LDS population did. Farmers, who presumably had a need for family labor, were more interested in the quantity than in the sex mix of their children.