Women and Guilds: Corporations and Female Labour Market Participation in Early Modern Holland

Recently, historians have suggested that the economic role of Dutch women and the remarkable economic development of the Dutch Republic are related. Guilds are said to have played an important role. This article analyses the female admission to guilds in early modern Holland in order to assess how guilds affected female labour participation. A classification of guilds according to their admittance of women reveals significant variations in the extent of incorporation of women. Gender norms were not rigid and were applied with flexibility. Thus, guilds formed no obstacle for women in contributing to the flourishing economy of the Dutch Republic.     

Ornaments Made from Animal Teeth in Human Burials at Tuzovskiye Bugry-1 and Their Relevance to Ethnic Processes in the Altai, 3rd Millennium BC

The article describes ornaments made of animal teeth (elk, beaver, badger, fox, marmot, musk deer, and ibex or mountain sheep) and found in ground burials at Tuzovskiye Bugry-1, Northern Altai. Ornaments made of the teeth of the two latter animals are especially informative since these taxa are not found in the Barnaul–Biysk area of the Upper Ob basin, nor did they inhabit the area in the historical past. The musk deer is distributed in the mountain taiga areas of Gorny Altai and Eastern Kazakhstan. Ibex and mountain sheep are typical representatives of alpine fauna. In the past, the northern boundary of their distribution range coincided with the Chemal River, the southern boundary lay in the Mongolian Altai, and the western, in Rudny Altai (Eastern Kazakhstan). Ornaments made from Ibex and mountain sheep teeth indicate ties with Gorny Altai, intermediary groups being those known from Solontsy-5 burial ground and Nizhnetytkesken Cave-1 burial. The co-occurrence of these ornaments with Dentalium, Corbicula ferghanensis Kurs. et Star., and Corbicula tibetensis Prash. shells points to ties with Western Central Asia. In this case, the likely intermediaries are the people of the Ust-Narym or Botai cultures. Alternatively, groups from Western Central Asia or Eastern Kazakhstan may have migrated to the Altai.     

Mollusk shells from burials of tuzovskiye bugry-1 As indicators of ethno-cultural processes In southern siberia and western central asia In the 3rd millennium bc

This article focuses on adornments made of mollusk shells from graves of the Tuzovskiye Bugry-1 burial ground in the Altai Territory. The collection includes bivalve shells: Corbicula ferghanensis Kurs. et Star. currently inhabiting the Amu Darya and Syr Darya basins; Corbicula tibetensis Prash. inhabiting the mountain regions of Central Asia, Eastern Kazakhstan, and the Amu Darya and Syr Darya basins; fossil Corbicula similar to Corbicula fl uminalis Mull; swan mussel of the genus Colletopterum inhabiting the Ob basin; and one specimen of Cardiidae sp. of the marine, probably, paleospecies. The most interesting are ancient marine tooth shells related to the genus Dentalium (class Scaphopoda, family Dentaliidae). In the Altai Territory, there are no such deposits that could have contained such shells. These shells were possibly brought by people from other regions. The closest occurrences of Dentaliidae are known in the Aral Sea region. The presence of beads of a truncated cone shape made of Dentalium shells as well as pendants made of Corbicula valves suggest connections between the Altai population and people inhabiting Western Central Asia. These connections might have existed in the form of direct contacts with bearers of the Ust-Narym and Botai cultures or else might have been the result of migration of people from Western Central Asia and Eastern Kazakhstan to the Altai.     

The Oldest Culture-Circles in Asia

The following essay is divided into three parts. In the first part, evidences are presented to show that, as a result of modern etymological researches, the traditional interpretation of as “what a man becomes after his death” can no longer be accepted as representing the primitive meaning of this character. In the second part, further evidences, both documentary and palaeographic, are adduced to show that was very probably the name given to some simian or anthropoid animal; and that its current significations of ghost, sprite, devil, etc. are but later modifications of this primitive notion. In the last part, the author makes a tentative classification of characters and terms which are the graphic, semantic or phonetic cognates of in the light of the above conclusions.     

Australian Cenozoic Bryozoa, 2: Free-living Cheilostomata of the Eocene St. Vincent Basin,S.A., including Bonellina gen. nov

Schmidt, R., March 2007. Australian Cenozoic Bryozoa, 2: Free-living Cheilostomata of the Eocene St. Vincent Basin, S.A., including Bonellina gen. nov. Alcheringa 31, 67-84. ISSN 0311-5518.

Free-living bryozoans are diverse in the Eocene sediments of the St. Vincent Basin, South Australia. They include Bonellina pentagonalis gen. et sp. nov., Otionellina sp. cf. O. exigua (Tenison Woods), Otionellina sp. cf. O. cupola (Tenison Woods), Tubiporella magna (Tenison Woods), Celleporaria nummularia (Tenison Woods), and an indeterminate species only found as moulds. This diversity and abundance is highest in the sediments representing the initial transgressive marine facies, where they occur in ‘sand fauna’ bryozoan assemblages (e.g. with Melicerita and Siphonicytara). Free-living bryozoans decrease up-section and are absent from latest Eocene sediments, indicating a significant environmental shift.

Rolf Schmidt [rschmid@museum.vic.gov.au], Museum Victoria, Melbourne, Vic 3001, Australia; received 18.3.2005, revised 14.12.2005.     

The fuzzy limits of self-reliance: US extended deterrence and Australian strategic policy

As a close US ally, Australia is often seen as a recipient of US extended deterrence. This article argues that in recent decades, Australian strategic policy engaged with US extended deterrence at three different levels: locally, Australia eschews US combat support and deterrence under the policy of self-reliance; regionally, it supports US extended deterrence in Asia; globally, it relies on the US alliance against nuclear threats to Australia. The article argues that in none of these policy areas does the Australian posture conform to a situation of extended deterrence proper. Moreover, when the 2009 White Paper combines all three policies in relation to major power threats against Australia, serious inconsistencies result in Australia's strategic posture—a situation the government should seek to avoid in the White Paper being drafted at the time of writing.