Declining Food Security in a Philippine Oil Palm Frontier: The Changing Role of Cooperatives

The long‐held redistributive function of agricultural cooperatives — one of moral economy and poverty alleviation — has changed dramatically as they emerge as core brokers for agro‐industrial development in the so‐called ‘green economy’. This article examines the changing role of cooperatives involved in brokering oil palm production and its impact upon the food security and livelihoods of smallholders who labour in plantation regimes situated in historically uneven agrarian political economies. Findings show how, increasingly, cooperatives reinforce uneven agrarian social relations of production and exchange in which indigenous smallholders experience loss of land, poor wage labour conditions tinged with insecurity and prejudice, and mounting debt in an expanding oil palm complex. The article suggests that these changes in agrarian social relations negatively influence indigenous farmers’ food security pathways, with their access to and use of appropriate foods diminishing. It asserts that understanding the impacts of cooperatives on food security pathways requires a relational and situated analysis of livelihood change and agrarian relations in extractive frontiers.     

In Defense of “Public Reason”: Supreme Court Justice William Johnson

For those of us who gravitate toward rebels and upstarts, Supreme Court Justice William Johnson has uncommon appeal, if only because he was the first member of the federal Bench to kick up his heels in a sustained, effective, and deliberate way. In 1954, Johnson's only biographer, Donald Morgan, proclaimed him “the first dissenter,” ¹ a force for democratization in the style of Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson, the man who persuaded Chief Justice John Marshall to compromise on the question of unitary opinions and institutionalize (if not applaud) publication of concurring or dissenting departures from the majority's official reasoning.     

This is Not an Answer to the Question “Who is Indigenous?”

‘Indigenous’ is a colonial category, and it is always related to particular colonial configurations of diversity and in relationship to particular colonial/national states. In this paper, the many historical configurations in which the terms ‘Indian’ and ‘Indigenous’ have figured are traced, including the Spanish colonial state and the Argentine state. The ways in which these successive systems of categorization are juxtaposed is described. Finally, post-Western understandings of what it could mean ‘to be Indigenous’ are explored.     

Conversation with Ernestina Mamaní

This paper records a conversation that took place on Thursday 23rd November 2006 at the Museo del Hombre de Antofagasta de la Sierra (Museum of Man of Antofagasta de la Sierra), Catamarca, Argentina. The conversation involved different research groups co-investigating, each formed by a student of archaeology and a member of the personnel of the museum and/or other areas of the culture of the municipality of Antofagasta de la Sierra. Each presented the state of his/her enquiry into a particular object in the museum collection. The task was to tie stories to objects: stories by the elders of the town, the people who had discovered the item, the personnel of the museum and the texts written by archaeologists. This paper focuses on the conversation with Ernestina Mamaní, about a stone slab by Antofagasta elder, Don Anacleto Cháves, which she and Laura Roda had chosen to research.

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Résumé Cet article rapporte une conversation qui a eu lieu le jeudi 23 novembre 2006 au Museo del Hombre de Antofagasta de la Sierra (Musée de l'homme d'Antofagasta de la Sierra), Catamarca, Argentine. La conversation mettait en scène différents groupes de recherche travaillant conjointement, chacun constitué d’un étudiant en archéologie, d’un membre du personnel du musée et/ou d'autres secteurs du service de la Culture de la municipalité d'Antofagasta de la Sierra. Chacun a présenté l'état de ses recherches autour d’un objet particulier des collections de musée. Il s’agissait d’accoler des récits aux objets: histoires rapportées par les anciens du village, les personnes ayant découvert l'objet, le personnel du musée et les rapports écrits par les archéologues. Cet article relate particulièrement la conversation avec Ernestina Mamaní, au sujet d'une dalle de pierre faite par un ancien d'Antofagasta, Don Anacleto Cháves, qu’elle même et Laura Roda avaient choisie pour leur recherche.

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Resumen Esta ponencia registra una conversación que sucedió el jueves 23 de noviembre de 2006 en el Museo del Hombre de Antofagasta de la Sierra, Catamarca, Argentina. La conversación involucraba diferentes grupos de co-investigación, integrado por una estudiante de arqueología y un miembro del personal del museo y/o otras areas de cultura de la municipalidad de Antofagasta de la Sierra. Cada una presentaba el estado de su indagación acerca de un objeto particular de la colección del museo. La consigna era anudar historias a cada objeto, historias ofrecidas por los ancianos del pueblo, los descubridores de la pieza, el personal del museo y los textos escritos por arqueólogos. Esta ponencia se focaliza en la conversación con Ernestina Mamaní, sobre una laja encontrada por un vecino de Antofagasta, Don Anacleto Cháves, que ella y Laura Roda habían elegido para investigar.

     

Ethinicity and Identity in the Archaeological Record (Reconstruction of an Excavation Completed in 1937 on a Chickasaw Village Site in Northeast Mississippi)

This article presents the restitution of an operation of excavation carried out in 1937 by Moreau Chambers on the site of a Chickasaw village. The objective of my research is to carry out a new analysis of the documents of the old excavations, to answer the interrogations concerning the way of life of Chickasaw at the beginning of the historical period and to reconstitute a site plan for this Chickasaw village. This operation included/understood also the handing-over of repatriated bodies. I also discuss the way in which my implication in this project interacted with my identity as a Chickasaw woman. The restitution of the operation of excavation, repatriation, and associated research contributed to show to the Chickasaw people the ways in which the law can help them. I finish this article by discussing the implications on the long term of the operation of Chambers for the modern archaeologists, the Chickasaw people, and Chickasaw who are themselves archaeologists.     

Stable Isotopic Evidence of Ancient Maya Diet at Caledonia,Cayo District,Belize

The skeletal remains of 18 individuals interred at the ancient Maya site of Caledonia (100 to 1000 C.E.), located in the Cayo District of Belize, w ere sampled for stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis in order to reconstruct their diet. Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios in 18 bone collagen samples and stable carbon isotope ratios in bioapatite from 15 bone and 6 tooth enamel samples were assessed. Small sample sizes precluded the assessment of dietary variation with respect to age, sex, social status or time period among the Caledonia Maya. However, the sampled individuals consumed a varied diet consisting of maize, supplemented with some C₃ plants, terrestrial herbivores and/or lower order freshwater resources such as snails and molluscs and possibly maize‐fed animals. This dietary variability with an emphasis on maize is unsurprising given the biological diversity surrounding the site and the known importance of this crop to the ancient Maya. As expected, the isotopic values from Caledonia are similar to those from nearby sites from similar time periods. However, four individuals exhibit a marine dietary signature, possibly indicating inland trade of marine resources from coastal sites, or the migration of coastal people to Caledonia. This study demonstrates the validity of sampling small, fragmented collections from minor Maya centres in order to gain valuable insight into ancient Maya dietary practices. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Stable Isotope Analysis of Human and Animal Remains at the Qijiaping Site in Middle Gansu,China

Intercontinental exchanges between communities living in different parts of Eurasia during the late prehistoric period have become increasingly popular as a topic of archaeological research. The Qijia culture, found in northwest China, is one of the key archaeological cultures that can shed light on trans‐Eurasian exchange because a variety of imports are found in this cultural context. These imports include new cereals and animals, which suggest that human diets may also have changed compared with previous periods. To understand human and animal diets of the Qijia culture, carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios from human and animal skeletal remains were analysed from the type site of the Qijia culture at Qijiaping. The results demonstrate that human diet at the site mainly consisted of millet and animals fed on millet. C₃ cereals, such as wheat and barley, did not contribute significantly to human diet, and no isotopic differences were found between adult and subadult diets. Furthermore, three outlying human results raise the possibility of exogenous individuals, perhaps in relation to the parallel movement of animals, crops and goods. This study provides human and animal dietary information for evaluating the nature of exchange and diffusion in eastern Eurasia at this time. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Domestic Camelids (Cetartiodactyla: Camelidae) from the Middle Formative Cemetery of Topater 1 (Atacama Desert,Northern Chile): Osteometric and Palaeopathological Evidence of Cargo Animals

The Middle Formative Cemetery of Topater 1 (ca. 500 bc –100 ad ), located in the oasis of Calama, Northern Chile, presents an unusually diverse array and quantity of funerary offerings, distributed among the graves of more than 200 individuals. Among the offerings are the remains of several mummified camelids and camelid skeletal elements, primarily distal extremities and artefacts made from the bones of these animals. Taking only the first skeletonised anterior and posterior phalanges of Topater 1 camelids, we conducted univariate and multivariate osteometric analyses in order to assign the sample to the appropriate taxonomic groups. At the same time, we described all osteopathologies registered for the extremities in the collection. Of the 45 phalanges measured, 30 were of similar or greater size than contemporary reference llamas. Fourteen of the 164 samples of bone extremities presented pathologies, most of them first phalanges. These abnormalities included different degrees of exostosis and, less commonly, eburnation and lipping. Considering both lines of evidence, we conclude that the llamas sacrificed at the Topater 1 cemetery correspond to, at least, two very large and robust cargo llama morphotypes. When living, these animals would have transported goods as part of the intense exchange activity that was taking place during this period in the region extending from the Pacific coast to Northwest Argentina and perhaps even beyond. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.