Poaceae phytoliths from the Niassa Rift,Mozambique

The most common grass phytoliths from “Zambezian” miombos are described here for the first time. Their potential for long term preservation in sediments makes them a useful tool in the reconstruction of ancient plant communities and plant/human interactions. We processed 60 plant samples (26 identified genera and species), with an average of 300 phytoliths counted per sample to a total of 18,586. Forty-seven morphotypes were described as per the International Code for Phytolith Nomenclature, with exceptions, including forty-five discreet shapes and two articulated forms, which can be used as comparative reference materials. We conducted three forms of statistical analyses: Discriminant Analysis, Cluster Analysis, and Principal Component Analysis. The highest biomineral content was recorded among the Bambuseae and Paniceae, while the lowest silica production is detected in the Cynodonteae tribe. Typologically, the subfamily Panicoideae yielded 50% of the types reported here, 32% are from the Chloridoideae, 12% from the Bambusoideae, and 8% from the Arundinoideae sensu lato. Overall, the idealized Zambezian Poaceae phytolith spectrum is dominated by a small subset of Poaceae short cells, which include five morphotypes conventionally associated with Panicoid grasses (Bilobate concave outer margin long shaft, Bilobate concave outer margin short shaft, Bilobate convex outer margin long shaft, Bilobate convex outer margin short shaft, Cross), one morphotype commonly seen in Chloridoid taxa (saddle), and two types that appear across subfamily boundaries (tower, tower horned). The next logical step to take in regional phytolith research is the account of phytoliths deposited in soils underneath living plants, for they represent the interface between existing vegetation communities and the inevitably distorted fossil assemblages that the paleobotanist uses for environmental reconstruction.     

Early and mid Holocene tool-use and processing of taro (Colocasia esculenta), yam (Dioscorea sp.) and other plants at Kuk Swamp in the highlands of Papua New Guinea

Recent multidisciplinary investigations document an independent emergence of agriculture at Kuk Swamp in the highlands of Papua New Guinea. In this paper we report preliminary usewear analysis and details of prehistoric use of stone tools for processing starchy food and other plants at Kuk Swamp. Morphological diagnostics for starch granules are reported for two potentially significant economic species, taro (Colocasia esculenta) and yam (Dioscorea sp.), following comparisons between prehistoric and botanical reference specimens. Usewear and residue analyses of starch granules indicate that both these species were processed on the wetland margin during the early and mid Holocene. We argue that processing of taro and yam commences by at least 10,200 calibrated years before present (cal BP), although the taro and yam starch granules do not permit us to distinguish between wild or cultivated forms. From at least 6950 to 6440 cal BP the processing of taro, yam and other plants indicates that they are likely to have been integrated into cultivation practices on the wetland edge.     

Care and the Lives of Homeless Youth in Neoliberal Times in Canada

Socio-spatial insights from feminist theories of care are examined in relation to the complex, difficult lives of some homeless youth in Ottawa, and their embeddedness within multiple scales of public policy construction and implementation. As lengthy interviews with 78 female and 78 male homeless youth in Ottawa revealed, both care and self-sufficiency figure strongly in these young peoples' lives. It is our contention that care is generally not part of current senior government agendas geared to marginalised youth and that as a result, there is a gap in funding that supports efforts of community organisations who work with homeless youth. We suggest that one way in which to understand this gap is by recognising that senior government programming for marginalised youth is geared problematically to narrowly defined employability issues. Furthermore, we assert that this results in local organisations being left to bridge the gaps between these one-dimensional characterisations and the complex gendered, racialised and situated lives of marginalised youth. In this article, we draw upon our preliminary findings from on-going research with homeless youth in Ottawa to expand on these arguments, in conjunction with theoretical insights drawn from selected ethics of justice and ethics of care arguments. We assert that there are important socio-spatial implications to be considered. Incorporating care into the framework of senior government policies implies that there is an onus not only to provide sufficient funds but also to direct those monies in such a way that the gendered and racialised contexts within which homeless youths are living manifest qualities of both care and justice. This article suggests that the role of appropriately located, multifaceted social services may have a significance that has not been appropriately recognised.

Cuidado y las vidas de jóvenes que faltan viviendas en tiempos de tendencia neoliberalista en Canadá

Se examinen perspicacias socio-espaciales que viene de teorías feministas de cuidado en relación a las vidas complejos y diversas de jóvenes sin hogares en Ottawa y a su fijación (embeddedness) en escalas múltiples de la construcción e implementación política publica. En entrevistas largas con 78 jóvenas y 78 jóvenes que no tienen hogares en Ottawa se revela que el cuidado e independencia se destacan en las vidas de las/los jóvenes. Sostenemos que generalmente el cuidado no es parte de las agendas actuales del gobierno superior que orientan a jóvenes marginalisados, y como consecuencia existe una brecha de financiamiento para apoyar organisaciones que trabajan con jóvenes sin hogares. Sugerimos que una manera para entender ésta brecha es reconocer que los programas del gobierno superior se orientan a cuestiones de empleabilidad limitado. Además afirmamos que resulta que organisaciones locales tienen la responsabilidad para tender puentes entre la brecha de caracterisaciones unidimensional y las vidas complejas, generificadas (gendered), racialisadas, y situatadas de jóvenes marginalisados. En éste artículo utilisamos conclusiones preliminares de investigaciones continuas con jóvenes que no tiene viviendas en Ottawa para extender los dichos argumentos en conjunción con perspicacias teoréticas de argumentos específicos de las éticas de justicia y las éticas de cuidado. Afirmamos que hay implicaciones socio-espaciales importantes que se necesitan tomar en cuenta. La incorporación de cuidada en el marco de las políticas desgobierno superior implica que no solo hay una responsabilidad para aprovisionar financiamiento suficiente sino que dirigir los fondos en una manera en que los contextos racialisados y generificados de las vidas de jóvenes marginalisados manifestan las calidades de cuidado y justicia. Éste artículo sugiere que el papel de servicios multifacéticos que se ubica adecuado tengan una importancia que no se reconocen apropiado.     

Book reviews

The History of Political and Social Concepts: A Critical Introduction. By Melvin Richter (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995), vii + 204 pp., £ 35 cloth.

The Life of Adam Smith. By Ian Simpson Ross (Oxford: Clarendon, 1995) xxviii + 495 pp. £25.00 cloth.

Martin Heidegger and the Holocaust. Edited by Alan Milchman and Alan Rosenberg (Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press International, 1996) xiv + 271 pp. $60.00 cloth.

The Making of Portuguese Democracy. By Kenneth Maxwell (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), 250 pp. £14.95/$19.95 paper.

Engineering the Revolution: Arms and Enlightenment in France, 1763–1815. By Ken Alder (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997), xvi + 476 pp. $59.50/£45 cloth.

The Wars of Eduard Shevardnaze. By Carolyn McGiffert Ekedahl and Melvin A. Goodman (Unversity Park, PA: Pennsylvania State Press, 1997), xxiii + 331 pp. $29.95/£26.95 cloth.

The Legacy of the French Revolution. Edited by Ralph C. Hancock and L. Gary Lambert (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1996), viii + 299 pp. $19.95 paper.

Suffering and the Remedy of Art. By Harold Schweizer (State University of New York Press, 1997), xii +211 pp. $17.95 paper.

Intimacy and Exclusion: Religious Politics in Pre‐Revolutionary Baden. By Dagmar Herzog (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996), x + 252 pp. $49.50/£42.50 cloth, $16.95/£13.95 paper.

In Search of Dreamtime: The Quest for the Origin of Religion. By Tomoko Masuzawa (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993), 223 pp. $15.95 paper.

Courtship, Illegitimacy and Marriage in Early Modern England. By Richard Adair (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1996), ix + 273 pp. £40 cloth.

Correlation and Regression Analysis: A Historian's Guide. By Thomas J. Archdeacon (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1994), xxi + 352 pp. $44.95 cloth, $19.95 paper.

Unified Theories of Cognition. By Allen Newell (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1994), xiii + 549 pp. $19.95 paper.

Discipline and Experience: The Mathematical Way in the Scientific Revolution. By Peter Dear (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995), xii + 290 pp. $60.00 cloth, $24.00 paper.

The Transformation of Natural Philosophy: The case of Philip Melanchthon. By Sachiko Kusukawa (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), xv + 246 pp. $59.95/£35.00 cloth.

Otto Neurath: Philosophy Between Science and Politics. By Nancy Cartwright, Jordi Cat, Lola Fleck, and Thomas E. Uebel (Cambrdige: Cambridge University Press, 1996), xii + 288 pp. $59.95/£35.00 cloth.

Aramis or The Love of Technology. By Bruno Latour. Translated by Catherine Porter (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1996), x + 314 pp. $45.00 cloth, $19.95 paper.

Galileo on the World Systems: A New Abridged Translation and Guide. Translated and edited by Maurice A. Finocchiaro (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997), xi + 435 pp. $55.00 cloth, $19.95 paper.

Europe's Economy Looks East: Implications for Germany and the European Union. Edited by Stanley W. Black (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), xvi + 363 pp. £45.00/$ 64.95 cloth.

The Transformation of Capitalist Society. By Zellig S. Harris (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1997), xiii + 245 pp. £19.50 paper.

Bloodtaking and Peacemaking: Feud, Law, and Society in Saga Iceland. By William Ian Miller (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1997), xii + 407 pp. $17.95 paper.

From Virgil to Vietnam: The Founding Legend of Western Civilization. By Richard Waswo (Hanover: University Press of New England, 1997), xvi + 356 pp. n.p.g. cloth.

Reading Seminar XI: Lacan's Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis. Edited by Richard Feldstein, Bruce Fink, and Maire Jaanus (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995), xv + 291 pp. $16.95 paper.

Nature and the Idea of a Man‐Made World: An Investigation into the Evolutionary Roots of Form and Order in the Built Environment. By Norman Crowe (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1995 hardback, 1997 paper), 270 pp. $17.50 paper.

The Gothic Body: Sexuality, Materialism and Degeneracy at the Fin de Siècle. By Kelly Hurley (Cambridge University Press, 1996), xii + 203 pp. £30.00 $49.95 cloth.

Russia's Constitutional Revolution: Legal Consciousness and the Transition to Democracy 1985–1996. By Robert B. Ahdieh (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1997), viii + 255 pp. £26.95 $30.00 cloth, £13.50 $14.95 paper.

Hunters and Collectors: the Antiquarian Imagination in Australia. By Tom Griffiths (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), xiv + 416 pp. £45.00/$64.95 cloth.

Persecution, Extermination, Literature. By Sem Dresden, trans. by Henry G. Schogt (University of Toronto Press 1995), viii + 237 pp. N. America $45.00 cloth, $17.95 paper, Europe $54 cloth, $2.55 paper.

Essays on the Anthropology of Reason. By Paul Rabinow (Princeton: Princeton University Press 1996), vxii + 190 pp. $49.50 £40.00 cloth, $14.95 paper.

Dissolution: The Crisis of Communism and the End of East Germany. By Charles S. Maier (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997), xx + 441 pp. $29.95 cloth.

History: What & Why?: Ancient, Modern and Postmodern Perspectives. By Beverley Southgate (London and New York: Routledge, 1996), xii + 167 pp. £11.99 paper.

Genealogies of the Text: Literature, Psychoanalysis, and Politics in Modern France. By Jeffrey Mehlman (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), xi + 262 pp. $59.95 cloth.

Launching Europe: An Ethnography of European Cooperation in Space Science. By Stacia E. Zabusky (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1995), xii + 257 pp. $17.95 paper/$49.50 cloth.

Elizabeth Gaskell: The Early Years. By John Chapple (Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 1997), xviii + 492 pp. £25.00 cloth.

Adam Ferguson: An Essay on the History of Civil Society. Edited by Fania Oz‐Salzberger (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), xxxv + 283 pp. £37.50/$54.95 cloth.

Greek Heroine Cults. By Jennifer Larson (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1995) xv + 235 pp., £33.50 cloth, £16.00 paper.

Florence Nightingale: Letters from the Crimea 1854–1856. Edited by Sue M. Goldie (Oxford: Mandolin, 1997), xx + 326 pp. £9.00 paper.

A History of Heaven: The Singing Silence. By Jeffrey Burton Russell (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1997), xv + 220 pp. $24.95 cloth.

Heidegger's Silence. By Berel Lang (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1996), xi + 129 pp. $19.95 cloth.

Simon de Montfort. By J. R. Maddicott (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), xxiii + 404 pp., 14.95/ $24.95 paper.

Communities of Violence: Persecutions of Minorities in the Middle Ages. By David Nirenberg (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996), viii + 301 pp. $29.95/£23.95, cloth.     

Australian Labor and the Socialist Tradition

Amidst the turmoil of the so‐called ‘death of socialism’, both in Australia and elsewhere, there has been renewed debate about what socialism should be taken to mean. This paper attempts to come to terms with the competing claims about, in particular, socialism within the Australian Labor Party and, in general, how better to understand the meaning of socialism. A comparison and contrast between the first principles of liberalism and socialism helps to illuminate some of the inadequacies of Marxist criticisms of parliamentary Labor. In addition, the argument is made that if we are willing to give greater emphasis to questions of means and ends, socialism can be seen to be part of Labor's historic mission. Far from being a defence of the Hawke administration, however, the case is made that there has been, under Hawke, a fundamental break with the democratic socialist tradition; that the difference is in kind, not degree.     

Tomorrow’s Country: Practice-oriented principles for Indigenous cultural fire research in south-east Australia

First Nations peoples are revitalising diverse cultural fire practices and knowledge. Institutional and societal recognition of these practices is growing. Yet there has been little academic research on these fire practices in south-east Australia, let alone research led by Aboriginal people. We are a group of Indigenous and settler academics, practitioners, and experts focused on cultural fire management in the Victorian Loddon Mallee region. Using interviews and workshops, we facilitated knowledge sharing and discussion. In this paper, we describe three practice-oriented principles to develop and maintain collaborations across Aboriginal groups, researchers, and government in the Indigenous-led revitalisation of fire on Country: relationships (creating reciprocity and trust), Country (working with place and people), and power (acknowledging structures and values). Collaborations based on these principles will be unique to each temporal, social, cultural, and geographic context. Considering our findings, we acknowledge the challenges that exist and the opportunities that emerge to constructively hold space to grow genuinely collaborative research that creates change. We suggest that the principles we identify can be applied by anyone wanting to form genuine collaborations around the world as the need for social–ecological justice grows.