King Pedro IV of Aragon, royal propaganda and the tradition of royal speechwriting

In the medieval Crown of Aragon it was customary for the corts to begin with a proposicio or opening speech made by the king. These Aragonese royal speeches were not merely confined to a brief summary of the political situation or a series of points to be considered but were elaborately constructed political sermons, in which affairs of state were portrayed in terms of Christian morality and nationalist pride, with the aid of exempla drawn from the Bible and other religious and classical works. An example is the speech made by Pedro IV ‘the Ceremonious’ of Aragon against the rebellion of the Judge of Arborea in Sardinia. A copy of this speech survives written in the king's own hand which raises the interesting question of whether the kings of Aragon were themselves responsible for the ideas expressed in these speeches and for composing them or whether their efforts were confined to reading out propaganda which was primarily the creation of royal officials.     

Fearing Food: The Influence of Risk Perceptions on Public Preferences for Uniform and Centralized Risk Regulation

Public opinion features prominently in policy research because it sets bounds on the definition of policy problems and acceptable policy solutions. We contend that public opinion is also important for setting bounds on the level of government at which policy hazards are regulated by shaping preferences for uniformity of regulation and, relatedly, preferences for centralization. We offer a theoretical argument for why risk creates pressures for uniform standards and examine the extent to which preferences for uniformity and centralization are the product of fairly stable individual-level predispositions (e.g. partisanship and ideology) versus more fluid attitudes like perceptions of risk, which vary in response to crises, new information, and issue framing. We test our argument using survey data in the policy domain of food safety and find that individuals who anticipate greater risk from food-borne illness prefer more uniform food safety regulation, which translates into preferences for federal-level policymaking. Our results imply that contextual circumstances and strategic communications that influence risk perceptions can create not only generalized public demand for more regulatory policy but specific demand for uniform, centralized regulation.     

Investigating the production and distribution of plain ware pottery in the Samoan archipelago with laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS)

This paper presents a provenance study of 170 ceramic artifacts and 21 ceramic tiles from three islands in the Samoan archipelago using laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS). Our analyses confirm that LA-ICP-MS can be used to differentiate between clay formations on a single island. We identify different distribution patterns for pottery recovered from lowland and highland sites on Tutuila Island. We also examine evidence for movement of pottery between islands, and find only limited evidence for such movement. Our findings suggest dynamic patterns of prehistoric interaction and site use that need to be evaluated with further data from across the archipelago.     

Cranial shape variation and phylogenetic relationships of extinct and extant Old World leaf-nosed bats

Wilson, L.A.B., Hand, S.J., López-Aguirre, C., Archer, M., Black, K.H., Beck, R.M.D., Armstrong, K.N. & Wroe, S., July 2016. Cranial shape variation and phylogenetic relationships of extinct and extant Old World leaf-nosed bats. Alcheringa 40, 509–524. ISSN 0311-5518

The leaf-nosed bats in Hipposideridae and Rhinonycteridae currently have an Old World tropical to subtropical distribution, with a fossil record extending back to the middle Eocene of Europe. The Riversleigh World Heritage fossil site in northwestern Queensland constitutes a particularly rich archive of faunal diversity for Old World leaf-nosed bats, having yielded more than 20 species. We used 2D geometric morphometrics to quantify cranial shape in hipposiderids and rhinonycterids, with the aim of referring unallocated fossil species, particularly from Riversleigh, to each family within a phylogenetic framework, and using a quantitative approach to reconstruct cranial shape for key clades in these Old World radiations. Our sample comprised 21 extant hipposiderids and rhinonycterids, 1 megadermatid and 1 rhinolophid, in which 31 landmarks were placed in lateral and ventral views, and five measurements were taken in dorsal view. The phylogeny used as the framework for this study was based on an analysis of 64 discrete morphological characters from the dentition, cranium and postcranium scored for 42 extant and fossil hipposiderids and rhinonycterids and five outgroup taxa (rhinolophids and megadermatids). The phylogenetic analysis was conducted using maximum parsimony, with relationships among selected extant taxa constrained to match the results of recent comprehensive molecular studies. Our phylogenetic results suggest that the Riversleigh leaf-nosed bats probably do not represent an endemic Australian radiation, with fossil species spread throughout the tree and several with sister-group relationships with non-Australian taxa. Discriminant analyses (DA) conducted separately on each dataset resulted in cross-validated classification success ranging from 61.9% for ventral landmarks to 71.4% for lateral landmarks. Classification of the original grouped cases resulted in success of 81% for each dataset. Of the eight fossil taxa included as unknowns in the DA, six were found to be assigned to the same group as recovered by the phylogenetic analysis. From our results, we assign the Riversleigh Miocene species Archerops annectens, Brachipposideros watsoni, Brevipalatus mcculloughi, Rhinonicteris tedfordi and Xenorhinos halli to Rhinonycteridae, and Riversleigha williamsi and Hipposideros bernardsigei to Hipposideridae. Our results support Pseudorhinolophus bouziguensis, from the early Miocene of Bouzigues in southern France, as belonging to Hipposideridae, and probably Hipposideros. The reconstructed ancestor of hipposiderids was distinguished from that of the rhinonycterids by having a shorter rostrum, and less of a distinction between the rostrum and braincase.

Laura A.B. Wilson [laura.wilson@unsw.edu.au], Suzanne J. Hand [s.hand@unsw.edu.au], Camilo López-Aguirre [c.lopez-aguirre@unsw.edu.au], Michael Archer [m.archer@unsw.edu.au] and Karen H. Black [k.black@unsw.edu.au], PANGEA Research Centre, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, NSW 2052; Robin M.D. Beck [r.m.d.beck@salford.ac.uk], School of Environmental & Life Sciences, University of Salford, Salford M5 4WT, UK; Kyle N. Armstrong* [kyle.armstrong@adelaide.edu.au], Department of Genetics and Evolution, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia. *Also affiliated with South Australian Museum, North Terrace, Adelaide, SA 5000, Australia; Stephen Wroe [swroe@une.edu.au], School of Environmental and Rural Science, University of New England, Armidale NSW 2351, Australia.     

How Much Knowledge is Worth Knowing? An American Intellectual Historian's Thoughts on the Geschichte des Wissens

This essay investigates the origins and assesses the advantages and disadvantages of the new field known as Wissensgeschichte from the perspective of an American intellectual historian. It argues that while some historians of science may be ready to embrace a new identity as historians of knowledge, this terminology remains baggy and invites facile applications of Foucauldian theory. The essay concludes with the hope that the history of knowledge approach may instead open up new avenues for conversation and collaboration between historians of science and garden variety historians.