A consideration on the interest of a pottery typology adapted to the late Sasanian and early Islamic monastery at al-Qusur (Kuwait)

Since 2011, the French–Kuwaiti Archaeological Mission in Failaka has aimed at defining the function and the chronology of al-Qusur, located in the middle of Failaka Island (Kuwait). The central part of the site appeared to be a monastery, mainly occupied in early Islamic times. The creation of a site-specific pottery typology adapted to this settlement was one of the main objectives of the team. This typology is still in progress and the present paper will highlight the variety of questions that it can address. Certain pottery types provide new information about the monastery’s foundation, probably at the end of the Sasanian period, and abandonment, maybe during the ninth century AD. Pottery studies are also crucial for a better understanding of the monastery’s economic life and the eating practices of the monks. The question of the local or regional provenance of the pottery provides an insight into the inclusion of Failaka in exchange networks.     

Participant observation in obesity research with children: striated and smooth spaces

This article discusses the value of conducting participant observation in obesity research with children in an Australian community setting. Obesity is highly stigmatized, and the use of activity-based interviews exposed the intellectual and embodied consciousness that children negotiate when they take part in research about food and bodies. Instead of opening up possibilities, interview-based activities can lead to a moral correctness about healthy lifestyles. It was through participant observation, in engagement with what Deleuze and Guattari [1988 Deleuze, G., and F. Guattari. 1988. A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. London: Athlone Press. [Google Scholar]. A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. London: Athlone Press] call striated and smooth (or regulated and unregulated) spaces of children's everyday activities, that richer understandings of obesity and children's bodies became apparent. We argue that without participant observation, our understandings of what children say and draw about healthy lifestyles may be limited by the striated spaces in which we conduct our research and the constraints that accompany the cultural politics of childhood and obesity.     

These Bars Can't Hold Us Back: Plowing Incarcerated Geographies with Restorative Food Justice

Mass incarceration entrenches racial and class inequality and segregation. Before, during, and after low‐income people of color enter prison, they experience a range of barriers and biases that make it difficult to break out of the prison pipeline. This article investigates food justice and restorative justice activists in Oakland, California who are intervening at the point of reentry. I argue for the significance of teasing out the connections between food and carceral politics as a way to expand the practice and understanding of food justice. Specifically, I show how the incarcerated geographies of former prisoners, that is, perspectives and experiences that result due to the prison pipeline, motivate the formation of a restorative food justice. The associated healing and mutual aid practices increase social equity by creating spaces to overcome the historical trauma of mass incarceration, produce living wage jobs, rearticulate relationships to food and land, and achieve policy reforms.     

‘The Constructive Use of Abundance’: the UN World Food Programme and the Evolution of the International Food-Aid System during the Post-War Decades

This article studies the expansion of multilateral economic development aid in the early 1960s by exploring the history of the United Nations (UN) World Food Program. It analyses the pivotal role played by key development economists within the UN Secretariat, such as Hans Singer, alongside US policy-makers in the Kennedy administration in framing and directing the debate on multilateral food aid. It specifically argues that this period marked a shift in how food aid was perceived and utilised by donor and recipient countries - as well as international organisations like the UN and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Ultimately, what began in the 1950s as a bilateral method to feed the hungry through the disposal of surplus agricultural commodities evolved into an international food-aid system by the 1960s centred on the utilisation of surplus agriculture for economic development. This change showcased both the common goals and competing interests of US and UN policy-makers as food aid now joined the wider debate on various doctrines of development.     

Youth,Temporality, and Territorial Stigma: Finding Good in Camden,New Jersey

The concept of “territorial stigmatisation” identifies the role of symbolic denigration in the production of marginalised places. In this paper, I draw on ethnographic research with a food justice organisation in Camden, New Jersey, to examine youth's responses to territorial stigma. The analysis demonstrates how Black and Latinx youth rewrite the story of Camden in a way that locates the “good” within it, using narratives of the city's prosperous history and possible futures to recuperate value within a stigmatised place. I argue that the perspectives of youth illuminate the temporal dimensions of territorial stigma, situating the blemish of place in relation to conceptions of individual and social change. The article contributes to a growing literature examining the strategic responses of those who dwell in pathologised places. Because youth are uniquely situated within the production of place, their perspectives offer important insights in this process.     

女性老年人肥胖的建成环境影响因素及规划响应研究

随着老龄化的快速发展,老年人在中国已经构成重要的群体,而因肥胖导致的一系列慢性疾病严重影响老年人的寿命和生命质量。身体质量指数（BMI）是衡量肥胖的重要指标。本文以女性老年人为研究对象,运用有序多分类Logistic回归模型,分析建成环境对女性老年人身体质量指数的影响。结果表明,居住地附近是否有适宜的休闲体力活动场所、居住地到休闲体力活动场所的步行时间、一周内去商场的频率、高热量食物的可获得性等建成环境变量与因变量女性老年人BMI等级存在显著联系。根据研究结论,从城市规划的角度提出建成环境优化建议,为构建老龄友好型的健康城市提供基础。     

Women’s sense of farming: ecofeminism in sustainable farming and local food in Vermont,U.S.A

Abstract

Women’s Sense of Farming is a qualitative study of women farming as part of the local food movement in Vermont, U.S.A. The study puts the lives of women farmers in conversation with ecofeminist theory in order to examine how women farmers simultaneously enact critiques of culture, while also mimicking dominant narratives. The study subjects’ narratives of their lives show how they navigate the reason/nature dualism (as articulated by philosopher Val Plumwood). The result of the study is a set of values and experiences that show the successes and challenges of local food farmers working toward social, environmental, and economic sustainability.     

Eating Archaeology: Experimenting with Food in Public Outreach

Public engagement is becoming increasingly common practice in archaeological projects, capitalizing on the interactions of field archaeologists with local communities as well as with the descendants of the people under study, in a variety of ways: from the use of social media to engaging the local public with onsite presentations and exhibitions. However, public engagement efforts are often less robust when archaeologists return to their home institutions, with most of the researchers’ time and energies spent fulfilling their academic duties. Interactions between archaeologists and their local communities — those closer to their home institutions — are often minimal, creating insular university departments. To secure a future as a vibrant, relevant field of research, archaeology must develop greater interest and skill in engaging with its neighbours both within and outside the academy. The study of past meals and foodways provides an exceptional avenue for public outreach, which in turn is further enhanced through fruitful collaboration among various university departments and museums. Here we present the results of the multidisciplinary outreach project ‘Eating Archaeology’, designed with the intention of building collaborations across disciplines and a new narrative with which to engage the public.     

长江三角洲地区粮食安全性度量研究

区域粮食安全问题是当前政府与学者关注的热点问题之一。长江三角洲地区高速的工业化、城镇化过程及快速增长的经济使维系粮食生产的耕地数量及质量发生剧烈变化,区域的粮食供需矛盾日益突出。文章对该区粮食生产与土地变化的相关性进行了分析,并阐述了近50年的粮食波动系数,通过预测分析长江三角洲地区粮食产量与消费状况,进一步对该区域粮食安全性进行度量研究。研究结果表明长江三角洲地区粮食缺口将逐年变大,粮食安全状况越来越差,有效的调控措施是实现区域粮食安全的保证。