Landscapes of the Ghost Dance: A Cartography of Numic Ritual

Recent historical and ethnographic research indicates that the study of ritual behavior could be greatly enhanced by combining parameters of place and landscape use with interpretation of material culture. This strategy is especially useful for identifying the archaeological record of ritual among societies that incorporated topographic features and natural resources into their liturgical order. In this article we apply a behavioral framework to the study of Numic ritual technologies. By intergrating ethnographic and historic data on the geography, practice, and material culture of the nineteenth-century Nevada Ghost Dance, we demonstrate how this framework helps to determine the configuration of a ritual place and its position relative to other ritual and nonritual places.     

Blade technology and tool forms in the Middle Stone Age of South Africa: the Howiesons Poort and post-Howiesons Poort at Rose Cottage Cave

It has been suggested that between 80 and 35 ka the Middle Stone Age record of South Africa reveals episodes of inventiveness and innovation, punctuated by apparent returns to more conventional technologies. One such episode is the Howiesons Poort (HP). The appearance of a range of small geometric forms, apparently used as insets in multi-component tools, has been considered as evidence of improved hunting weapons, with possible social and symbolic connotations. On the basis of evidence such as backed tool production, small blade technology, the occurrence of typical end-scrapers and burins similar to those encountered in the European Upper Paleolithic, long-distance transport of fine-grained raw materials, and non-lithic novelties, the HP is associated with increased levels of technological efficiency and with behavioral innovations that could have allowed the expansion of African populations to other regions. Yet our knowledge of HP technology and tool production is limited to the analysis of Klasies River Main site by Singer and Wymer and Sarah Wurz, and a few preliminary reports from other sites. This is why we present here a detailed technological and typological analysis of several HP and post-HP assemblages from the well-excavated, well-dated and well-stratified site of Rose Cottage. Our analysis shows: (a) that the HP blade production was a real technical innovation, but was not based on indirect percussion, as often suggested; (b) that blade production was based on the use of marginal percussion which does not occur in the blade production of the Eurasian Middle Paleolithic; (c) that the tool kit was dominated by backed pieces, but not all can be considered as hunting weapons; (d) that neither end-scrapers nor burins are typical of this industry and are no more an antecedent to the European Upper Paleolithic than the end-scrapers and burins of the Middle Paleolithic; (e) that patterns of raw material procurement do not conform to models based on evidence from Klasies; (f) that diachronic changes within the Rose Cottage sequence indicate slow, gradual abandonment of the technological style of the HP; (g) that the post-HP assemblages are of MSA character and are typologically and technologically quite similar to the European Middle Paleolithic; (h) that the lack of persistence of the HP innovations is in need of an explanation. The HP is not a monolithic entity. Implications for the symbolic interpretations of the HP phenomenon are discussed.     

Thirty Years of Criticism of the Works of Florencio Sánchez

Through John Kronik's insights on self-conscious art, in particular his essay "Galdosian Reflections: Feijóo and the Fabrication of Fortunata," this article examines the self-conscious dimension of contemporary neorealist texts, in particular the use and role of the video game in the novel Ático, by Gabi Martínez.     

The demon of technology,mass society,and atomic physics in West Germany, 1945–1957

In the cultural‐political literature of post‐1945 West Germany, atomic energy often functioned as the most potent image of a “demon of technology” fraught with both enormous potential and enormous danger. These critiques of techno‐science also represented a traditional critique of “mass society,” whose erstwhile anti‐western sentiments now had to be sublimated. As the Cold War developed, discussion shifted to ambivalence about Germany's place in the struggle between superpowers, and the “demon of technology” sentiment shifted away from the conservative end of the spectrum. The controversy over the “Göttingen Eighteen” anti‐armaments manifesto of nuclear physicists is indicative of these shifts.     

Technology,Free Labor,and Slavery: Lincoln on Discovery and Invention

Abstract

Abraham Lincoln presented a lecture in 1858–1859 on the process of “Discoveries and Invention.” In this lecture he discusses man's desire to improve his condition and the use of technology to that end. The process of discovery and invention allows man to develop that technology and alleviate his state. Education, especially literacy, allows knowledge to be passed down through time, facilitating yet further improvement. Yet, Lincoln warns that human nature can also become raw material, as seen in the institution of slavery. In light of Lincoln's more commonly known natural rights argument against slavery, this warning about human nature takes on greater significance. Coupled with an address on agriculture from 1859, Lincoln's lecture on discovery and invention attempts to illustrate the liberating power of invention and education while reminding us of the limits posed by man's natural equality.     

China's Economic Policy Today: The New State Activism

A noted American authority and investigator of China's economy outlines the general features of the ongoing reorientation of Chinese economic policymaking toward increased state activism, which has gained momentum in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. An initial section of the paper describes the marketization and privatization initiatives of China's late reform period to provide a baseline against which to measure the subsequent shift toward increased state intervention and guidance in the economy. The author traces the shift in three critical policy arenas (social policy, state-owned enterprises, and industrial and technology policy) and demonstrates how state involvement in each intensified during the global financial crisis. He then proceeds to explore the implications of accelerated state activism in the future, identifying potential rewards as well as large risks. Among the latter are macroeconomic imbalances, a "softening" of budget constraints, difficulties in recognizing and terminating unsuccessful economic programs, and tensions with trading partners.     

China’s Information and Communication Technology in Geographic Perspective

Two economic geographers analyze the unprecedented growth of China’s information and communication technology (ICT) industry over the past decade (2000–2010)—an industry increasingly important as a new engine powering exports and providing infrastructure and services critical to sustaining economic growth. Using agglomeration and inequality indices including the Herfindahl and the Gini, the authors show that the geographic concentration of ICT activities has decreased over time, in tandem with a decline in their regional inequality; however, a new ICT development index (IDI) designed for this study reveals a significant and persistent gap in ICT development between the country’s advancing and lagging provinces. The paper also explores a range of factors contributing to “leapfrog” ICT growth in some provinces, as well as the challenges likely to be faced by the industry in the future. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: L630, L960, O180, O330. 2 figures, 4 tables, 85 references, 1 appendix.     

Oskar von Miller and the Art of the Electrical Exhibition: Staging Modernity in Weimar Germany

Within the larger framework of understanding how modernity wasframed within and through the domestic sphere, this articleconsiders the efforts of Bavarian electrical engineer Oskarvon Miller to electrify and modernize Germany against the backdropof Weimar reform movements. Unlike modernist reformers associatedwith such projects as the Bauhaus or the Werkbund, Miller wasa practical systems-builder who sought to encourage consumptionwithin traditional frameworks of home and Heimat. For Miller,exhibiting the benefits of technology was a key element in securingits success, and his reliance on consumers rested on a corporatistideal that would create a new kind of community centred on technology.Whereas in the Imperial era Miller focused on Handwerker andsmall machines as the guarantors of both progress and socialstability, in the Weimar era he turned to housewives and housework.Through his involvement in electrification schemes as well asin his work in founding the Deutsches Museum, one of the firstmuseums of science and technology in Europe, Miller createda powerful narrative of technological progress that was bothtraditional and modern.     

Quantifying flake scar patterning on cores using 3D recording techniques

A key feature of stone artefact morphology is the arrangement and patterning of negative flake scars left on flakes and cores. Scar patterning is often treated as a rough guide to identifying methods of core preparation and reduction and usually forms a key component of lithic typologies and other systems of analysis. However, scar patterns are often complex and difficult to capture using traditional measurement or classificatory techniques, particularly where flakes are thick and irregular, or where cores are flaked on many sides from a number of platforms. Three-dimensional analysis of flake scars is now more feasible using digital 3D surface scanning technologies, or using three-dimensional measurement tools such as the Microscribe-3DX which is now widely used in biological geometric morphometric studies more generally [D.C. Adams, F.J. Rohlf, D.E. Slice, Ital. J. Zool., 71 (2004) 5–16; F.J. Rohlf, L.F. Marcus, Trends Ecol. Evol. 8 (1993) 129–132. [1 and 34]]. This paper develops a mathematical formula for describing scar patterning using vectors calculated from the start and end points of flake scars recorded in three dimensions.     

Microblade technology and the rise of serial specialists in north-central China

Though present before the Last Glacial Maximum, microblade technology is uncommon in the lithic assemblages of north-central China until the onset of the Younger Dryas (12,900–11,600 calBP). While it is clear that microblades here and elsewhere were connected with mobile adaptations organized around hunting, the attendant assumption that they served primarily in hunting weaponry is not. The archaeological record of north-central China, including excavations at Pigeon Mountain (QG3) and Shuidonggou Locality 12 (SDG 12) in Ningxia Autonomous Region, and Dadiwan in Gansu Providence, and a handful of bone/antler tools slotted for microblade inserts, indicate a more direct linkage to mobility. These data suggest the rise of microblade technology in Younger Dryas north-central China was mainly the result of microblades used as insets in composite knives needed for production of sophisticated cold weather clothing needed for a winter mobile hunting adaptation akin to the residentially mobile pattern Binford termed “serial specialist.” Limited time and opportunities compressed this production into a very narrow seasonal window, putting a premium on highly streamlined routines to which microblade technology was especially well-suited.