Changing perceptions of West Africa's past: Archaeological research since 1988

Archaeological research since 1988 in West Africa has focused almost exclusively on the period since 10,000 B.P. Significant advances have been made in our understanding of the Late Stone Age in the Sahara and Savanna zones, the advent of metallurgy and subsequent changes in metal technology, and the comparative trajectories of complex societies in different regions. Increasingly, data are being recovered that fail to conform to earlier Eurocentric assumptions emphasizing linear, progressive change through a series of evolutionary ages and stages. The search for new, more appropriate models for interpreting West Africa's past has infused the discipline with great theoretical vitality. Both ethnoarchaeological studies and traditional archaeological research programs in West Africa are contributing substantially to the articulation of new theoretical frameworks for African archaeology and potentially for the discipline as a whole.     

Gender,Environment and Population

Based on field research from three regions with distinct variations in environment, population density, livelihood bases and levels of resource dependency, this study investigates the gender aspects of environmental change. It seeks to illustrate the relevance of gender factors for the patterns of adaptation to change, for the welfare impact of changes on the population, and for the ramifications for resource management and livelihood generation at the community level. It employs a gender analysis to examine the impact of such changes on population variables, particularly on health and nutrition, and to explore the more general question of whether women's socio-economic status is being threatened by the pressures of environmental change.     

Geography and the construction of difference

There is growing evidence of ‘horizontal hostilities’ among women: many women are affirming their identities along axes of class, race, sexuality, age and/or relationship to colonialism. Within recent feminist writing, geography—space, place and location—has been used as a vehicle for rethinking a feminist affinity that does not erase or undermine ‘difference’. We review contemporary uses of geographical metaphors and caution against an excessive emphasis on displacement as a metaphor for a critical feminist stance. We argue that geographies of placement must be held in tension with an ideal of displacement. We develop this point through a case study of women and work in contemporary Worcester, Massachusetts. Women in Worcester are very much rooted in place and this is a vehicle for the construction of differences across women. We argue that studies of the construction of feminine identities in particular places counteract the current tendency within feminism to rigidify differences among women and are an important means of rebuilding affinities among women.     

The strange geography of health inequalities

Place is undoubtedly relevant to health, and geography is a central character in the story of how rich societies handle inequalities in death and disease. But the text is incomplete, its scope limited by a too-delicate encounter between research and policy, and by a strange subdisciplinary divide. Accounts of the geography in health inequalities are largely, albeit subtly, locked into 'context'. They document the complex extent to which different (material, social and cultural) environments undermine or enhance resilience. They tell the tale of risky places. Our complementary narrative is written around the findings of qualitative 'compositional' research. It is about the way health itself is drawn into the structuring of society and space. This geography is a map of health discrimination, illustrated in the processes of selective placement, entrapment and displacement. By drawing attention to the 'healthism' of politics and policy in 'care-less' competition economies, this enlarged perspective might enhance the role of geography (and geographers) in both understanding and managing health inequalities.     

“An Irregular and Inconvenient Pile of Buildings”: The Destitute Asylum of Adelaide, South Australia and the English Workhouse

The Destitute Asylum of Adelaide, South Australia, was the subject of a rescue excavation in 1983. This paper seeks to explore the possibilities for further archaeological research that can arise from a reconsideration of reports generated by such excavations. Using documents, plans, photographs, and the Asylum buildings as material culture in much the same way as artifacts are used, the research focuses on the questions of space and room use within the Destitute Asylum.