In-migration and diphtheria mortality among children in the Sundsvall region during the epidemics of the 1880s

While many works have examined urban mortality rates in nineteenth-century Europe, much less attention has been placed on disease patterns in the peripheral areas surrounding these population centers. This study demonstrates that during the Swedish diphtheria epidemic of the early 1880s, mortality rates among children living in the industrial parishes on the outskirts of the town of Sundsvall exceeded those found in the town itself. The epidemic was fueled by the mass in-migration of laborers and their families from distant provinces who sought work in the region's sawmills. Thus, in contrast to the common pattern of disease entering through a port city and spreading into the interior, in this case diphtheria followed the paths of migrants through the rural parishes of the Sundsvall region to the sawmills and then finally into the town itself. This spatial pattern was reversed in the late fall when migrants returned home. Conflicts within the medical profession regarding how best to prevent or contain diphtheria, popular suspicion and distrust of local physicians, and the introduction of the disease into a population with no prior contact with it, all helped increase the number of young corpses.     

The ‘Sand-Bath’ and Lithic Heat Treatment in the South African Middle Stone Age: Myth or Reality?

When heat treatment of silcrete for stone knapping was first discovered in the South African Middle Stone Age (MSA), the procedure used for it was suggested to be similar to the one used for heat treatment of finer rocks in other parts of the world: slow sand-bath heating. This comparison may have been based on published data from the fields of ethnography, experimentation and archaeology, describing sand-bath like structures and processes. In this review, I discuss whether the available data from these three fields indeed justify the suggestions that sand-bath heating was used in the context of MSA silcrete heat treatment. A careful revaluation of the available data shows that, although sand-bath heating is a widely accepted procedure that is documented in other parts of the world, understanding the earliest known cases of heat treatment in the MSA calls for another technical procedure.     

Spatial cooperation patterns and their impact on innovation outcomes: lessons from firms in a low-technology region

This paper examines cooperation patterns of firms in the German low-technology region of Lower Bavaria. Particular emphasis is placed on the interplay among the spatial scale of cooperation, the form of cooperation and the type of innovation. Generic results show that overall, firms with a spatially more diverse set of cooperation linkages have a higher likelihood of innovating. However, the innovation outcomes differ depending on the spatial scale of cooperation. While cooperation with regional partners positively correlates with low-threshold innovations, cooperation with spatially distant partners positively correlates with product innovations. Surprisingly, it is application-oriented cooperation that channels the relation in both cases. The findings support the view that innovation of firms in low-technology regions is driven by ‘development’ rather than ‘research’. It also suggests that innovation-driven growth may even be possible in regions with limited values on the traditional innovation-supporting factors.     

Variability in Eritrea and the Archaeology of the Northern Horn During the First Millennium BC: Subsistence,Ritual, and Gold Production

Around the margins of Asmara, Eritrea, hundreds of sites dating to the early and mid-first millennium BC have been documented. They range from single family dwellings to small and large hamlets, small and large villages, and small towns. We call these Ancient Ona sites, using the Tigrinya term for ruin. Our findings testify to significant subsistence, ritual, and economic variation within a region of 12 by 17 km: (1) different subsistence strategies in the well-watered, open basin to the west of Asmara (emmer wheat, barley; cattle) compared to the uplands north and east of Asmara (lentil, teff; goats/sheep); (2) ritual events, marked by stone bulls' heads and a huge ash deposit at Sembel Kushet, that brought people together in rites of passage and intensification during Meskel-like ceremonies, including ritual exchange; and (3) the exploitation of gold north of Asmara among heterarchically organized communities that exchanged specialized products within this region.     

The Epipaleolithic (Iberomaurusian) from Grotte des Contrebandiers,Morocco

First identified 100 years ago, the Iberomaurusian is an Epipaleolithic industry that was described from a number of sites across western North Africa. One of these is Grotte des Contrebandiers (Smugglers’ Cave) in Morocco, where Abbé Jean Roche recovered Iberomaurusian materials in excavations in the late 1950s. Although the lithics were published in the early 1960s, subsequent changes in methods and in assessing the interpretive potential of lithic assemblages necessitated a restudy of these collections from Contrebandiers. This study led to a better understanding of the lithic types present and of the use of particular stone raw materials. Iberomaurusians emphasized lithic strategies that maximized use of fine-grained stone to the extent that pièces esquillées should be, among others, a defining criterion for this lithic industry.     

THE EVOLUTION OF HUMPHREY-HAWKINS*

Humphrey-Hawkins, enacted into law as the Full Employment and Balanced Growth Act of 1978, is the most important step the Federal government has taken for overall economic coordination since passage of the Employment Act of 1946. The centerpiece of the new law is specific goals for unemployment and inflation. All Federal programs and policies are to work toward achieving a 3 percent adult and 4 percent overall jobless rate within five years, and inflation rates of 3 percent by 1983 and 0 percent by 1988. The present article outlines the major changes made in Humphrey-Hawkins from its introduction in June 1974 to its enactment in October 1978, the contents of the Full Employment and Balanced Growth Act of 1978, and the politics surrounding its passage.