The Protohistoric Time Period in Northwest Ohio: Perspectives from the XRF Analysis of Metallic Trade Materials

This paper presents the results of an experimental study into the usefulness of X-ray florescence (XRF) in identifying the composition of metal artifacts found at aboriginal sites in northwestern Ohio. In the late 1990s, we subjected 96 samples to XRF and documented our results. We then compared our data to that collected by more precise spectrographic methods to assess the effectiveness of the XRF method for this application. While not precise enough to source native coppers, we conclude that XRF is a cheap, nondestructive method for differentiating native copper from its European counterparts at sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Late Woodland sites.     

An allosaurid theropod dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous of Victoria,Australia

The discovery of an astragalus of an allosaurid theropod in southeastern Australia extends the geographic range of the Allosauridae to include all continents except Antarctica and the Indian subcontinent. In addition, it confirms the presence of this family during the Early Cretaceous.     

Scenarios of Poiesis: Italian New Media (1994–2004)

This essay attempts to read a number of interventions in Italian new media over the last decade as both a response to and an implicit critique of posthumanism. After a brief discussion of the principal terms in question—new media, interaction, and posthumanism—and a survey of the most important contributors to the discourse of posthumanism in Italy, the essay maps the principal features of Italian media as embodied by the works of three contemporary new media artists. These characteristics include the privileging of a prosthetic model for understanding interaction and more generally the staging of interaction as moments of poiesis. They also include more recently the cancellation of the boundaries between ‘scientific’ and cultural images. The essay insists that by foregrounding the primacy of Italian cultural patterns for determining how meaning is generated in new media, Italian new media artists implicitly critique a reifying tendency among posthuman observers in Italy. The essay concludes with a broad assessment of the importance of poiesis for an Italian technological imaginary.     

Counterterrorism policy in liberal-democratic societies: locating the ethical limits of national security

This article considers the moral limits to national security policies. While it may seem self-evident that there are, and ought to be, limits to counterterrorism policies, there is an increasingly widespread public opinion that political leaders can, and must, do everything they can to protect against terrorist acts. Liberal-democratic societies are facing the threat of domestic terrorism, and for a political leader to say that ‘we cannot stop all terrorist acts and, indeed, neither should we’ would sound the death knell for their career. This article seeks to specify the limiting conditions around counterterrorism policy by reference to policymakers’ public justifications offered for counterterrorism policy. This article presents three normative elements that underpin counterterrorism policy to show that there are important reasons to limit counterterrorism policy, and to suggest that these limits ought to be recognised by political leaders and citizens alike in liberal-democratic societies. Having set out three limiting factors on counterterrorism policy, the article then shows that these factors do indeed play a role in UK counterterrorism policy development—that is, in recognising the justificatory apparatus for national security policies, limiting conditions ought to be found that are sensible to, and accepted by, the proponents of such policies.     

Globalised dreams,local constraints: migration and youth aspirations in an Indian regional town

Youth in India’s regional towns face a paradox: they are exposed to discourses of neoliberal globalisation through education and media, yet are unable to seize the benefits of globalisation, due to regional isolation. In this paper, we explore how aspirations of youth in India’s regional towns are influenced by their geographic marginalisation. Drawing on interviews and ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Darjeeling, a regional town in West Bengal, we demonstrate that regional youth feel disadvantaged in their access to middle-class jobs, modern education and lifestyles associated with neoliberal globalisation. Consequently, they express strong desires for ‘exposure,’ which can only be met through migration, particularly to India’s metropolitan cities. They are frustrated in their aspiration to migrate, however, as they feel constrained by the traditional family structure, discrimination in the larger cities and the uneven temporalities between regional towns and ‘global India.’ Their experiences highlight the geographically uneven effects of neoliberal globalisation.     

Globalizing Flowscapes and the Historical Archaeology of the Mormon Domain

Historical archaeology within the Mormon Domain should focus upon the globalizing flowscapes defined by Arjun Appaduri: ethnoscapes, mediascapes, technoscapes, financescapes, and ideoscapes. This perspective moves archaeological scholarship away from attempts to identify a single “Mormon Culture Pattern” and illustrate that pattern's collapse to processes of Americanization and Globalization after Utah achieved statehood. By shifting the focus to the relationships of exchange organized using the flowscapes, the Mormon Domain becomes an ideal venue to explore the roots of globalization's bifurcating tendency to deterritorialize nations and regions by connecting local places with transnational population movements. This intellectual perspective will further align historical archaeology in Utah and the Great Basin with general trends in historical archaeology, New Western History, and New Mormon History.     

Commentary: Medieval and Post-Medieval Archaeology of Greece

Recent work by archaeologists emphasized the contributions of archaeological fieldwork to the study of post-classical Greece. This marks a significant departure from traditional approaches to the archaeology of Byzantium that tended to focus on art historical methods and architectural history. Despite these changes in the study of post-classical Greece, the issues of abandonment, continuity and change continue to play an important role both in ongoing debates and will undoubtedly influence future research priorities. Only collaboration among scholars who study historical archaeology in Greece and elsewhere will ensure the continued relevance of this field even as these long-standing debates wane in relevance.