AMS C dating of early human occupation of southern South America

The time of appearance of a persistent and demographically-viable hunter-gatherer population in late Pleistocene southern South America must be determined by evaluating evidence from as large as possible a sample of candidate archaeological sites in the region. We co-ordinated the AMS dating of multiple bone and charcoal samples from previously-excavated strata at the following sites: Arroyo Seco 2, Paso Otero 5, Piedra Museo, and Cueva Tres Tetas (all in Argentina), and Cueva del Lago Sofia 1 and Tres Arroyos (both in Chile). With one possible exception, we did not obtain new results to confirm earlier observations of pre-Clovis-age cultural activity at any of the sites considered in this study. The possible exception, Arroyo Seco 2, is considered in detail elsewhere [Politis G., Gutierrez M.A., Scabuzzo, C. (Eds), in press. Estado actual de las Investigaciones en el sitio 2 de Arroyo Seco (región pampeana, Argentina). Serie Monográfica INCUAPA 5. Olavarría]. However, our results for the samples which were the most preferred indicators of cultural events (hearth charcoal and cut-marked bone) confirm that people were in the southern cone of South America at or soon after 11,000 BP (13,000 cal BP). Considered alongside recent age estimates for the Clovis culture in North America, these results imply the contemporaneous emergence of a consistent and archaeologically-robust human occupation signal at widely-separated locations across the Western Hemisphere. Such findings suggest that Palaeoindian demic expansion may have involved more than one terminal Pleistocene dispersal episode.     

Space,text and selfhood: encounters with the personal computer in the mass observation project archive, 1991–2004

While the advent of the personal computer in 1990s Britain has been well documented by historians of computing and technology, there remains little research on the everyday experience of this phenomenon. In this article, we use material held in The Mass Observation Project (MOP) archive to explore the way men and women in late-modern Britain experienced and understood the changes brought about by personal computing. The reflexive and yet private nature of responses held in the MOP archive make it an important window into the cultural and social contexts in which personal computers were encountered. Our research indicates that the advent of the personal computer brought about a number of historically-specific changes in the way Mass Observers scribed and composed their written communications. The processes through which people turned ideas into text were irreversibly recalibrated by the possibilities of saving, editing, copy and pasting on screen. As personal computer resources moved from being predominantly accessible at work to being a staple part of the home, the lines between labour and leisure, business and pleasure and the personal and the professional were blurred. Ultimately, evidence from the Mass Observation Archive indicates that the advent of the personal computer had a significant effect on the processes through which individuals composed a sense of self on a day-to-day basis. It introduced new tensions, possibilities and anxieties to the act of negotiating a ‘modern’ identity. Building on this insight, our paper makes interventions in two areas: the history of writing and the history of the home. Placed alongside one another, these findings open up suggestive new questions for the heavily contested historiographical trope of the late-modern ‘self’.     

Social Constructions,Anticipatory Feedback Strategies,and Deceptive Public Policy

Elected leaders adopt “anticipatory feedback strategies” in designing public policies that generate support and forestall opposition. This contention is at the core of a social construction theory of feedback. Officials anticipate approval when policies allocate benefits to powerful groups socially constructed as deserving and allocate costs or punishment to groups viewed as undeserving, particularly if these groups lack political power. Designs for powerful groups that are widely viewed as unworthy provide mainly benefits in ways that are hidden from the general public who would not approve. For politically weak groups regarded as deserving, legislators generally design policies that provide promises, but not much in terms of material benefits. Often, deception will be used to protect or enhance this particular allocation pattern, including the reinforcement, perpetuation, or change in the social constructions along with the stereotypes, labels, stigma, and accompanying narratives. Using data from legislation introduced by the 2016 Arizona Legislature, we find that most policy is directed toward providing benefits to positively viewed target populations, as expected by the theory, and legislators employ deceptive feedback strategies that protect themselves. Feedback from the general public, which otherwise might be expected, may be precluded by the deceptive strategies being used.     

Historical Survey and Chronology of Bonajuto Chapel in Catania,Italy

Located in the historical center of Catania, Italy, in the Civita district, the Bonajuto Chapel is one of the oldest and best-conserved buildings of the city, which has survived the numerous earthquakes that struck eastern Sicily during the medieval and the modern ages, such as those particularly devastating in 1169 and 1693. However, both the date of this small monument, as well as its original use, still remain uncertain, as literary and documentary evidence are scarce and fragmentary. Most historians, analyzing prevalently the stylistic and constructive aspects, interpreted the chapel as a place of worship and assigned its construction to a rather long period of the early Middle Ages, from the 5th or 6th centuries ad to the 8th or 9th centuries ad—the phase during which the island was under the Byzantine domination. The excavations carried out in 1930 to 1939 and the last restoration works (in 2003) have not provided explicit chronological data. Its age determination is considered essential for a better knowledge of the real influence of this domination on the architecture of the Island. Therefore, a multidisciplinary and accurate analysis of the building using the existing bibliography has been carried out also in order to understand the functional and morphological transformations of the chapel during its long life. The thermoluminescence absolute dating methodology applied to some brickwork elements of the construction, has placed the monument chronology in a period of time that is notably shorter than that previously noted here. These new data, with the study of the architectural structure, have made a significant step forward in the knowledge of the chapel history.     

Intra-group interactions and inter-group violence: Sikh mobilization during the partition of India in a comparative perspective

Theories of ethnic conflict posit ethnic mobilization by elites as a necessary condition for ethnic war. What is less well understood is why ethnic mobilization succeeds in some instances, but not in others. This article examines this question using a case that is yet to be systematically explored from this perspective: Sikh mobilization during the partition of British India in 1947. During the period February–July 1947, there were two clear instances in which a section of Sikh elites tried to mobilize group members. While the first attempt at mobilization in March failed to elicit sufficient mass participation, the second attempt, in July, was more effective and created the preconditions for the violence that ensued in August. What explains this variation in mobilization outcomes? We contend that this difference can be traced back to key changes in elite strategy from March to July. In March, mobilization failed because the Sikh elites who were committed to the path of violence left the onus of the mobilization on a small group of extremists and mass sentiments, ignoring serious intra-community differences based on class and caste inequalities. By contrast, in July, they emphasized the issue of land dispossession and gave credible indications of their resolve to use violence to defend individual rights to land. These actions produced greater compliance because of the specific capacity of anti-land dispossession politics to blur intra-group social inequalities and heighten inter-group tensions based on land dispossession.     

Panel regression formulas for estimating stature and body mass from immature human skeletons: a statistical approach without reference to specific age estimates

Anthropologists require methods for accurately estimating stature and body mass from the human skeleton. Age-structured, generalized Least Squares (LS) regression formulas have been developed to predict stature from femoral length and to predict body mass in immature human remains using the width of the distal metaphysis, midshaft femoral geometry (J), and femoral head diameter. This paper tests the hypothesis that panel regression is an appropriate statistical method for regression modeling of longitudinal growth data, with longitudinal and cross-sectional effects on variance. Reference data were derived from the Denver Growth Study; panel regression was used to create one formula for estimating stature (for individuals 0.5–11.5 years old); two formulas for estimating body mass from the femur in infants and children (0.5–12.5 years old); and one formula for estimating body mass from the femoral head in older subadults (7–17.5 years old). The formulas were applied to an independent target sample of cadavers from Franklin County, Ohio and a large sample of immature individuals from diverse global populations. Results indicate panel regression formulas accurately estimate stature and body mass in immature skeletons, without reference to an independent estimate for age at death. Thus, using panel regression formulas to estimate stature and body mass in forensic and archaeological specimens may reduce second stage errors associated with inaccurate age estimates.     

Megafaunal extinction in the late Quaternary and the global overkill hypothesis

The global blitzkrieg hypothesis explains differential rates of megafaunal extinction between the world's landmasses in the late Quaternary based on a proposed leap in predation efficiency enjoyed by colonising societies. It is characterised by appealing simplicity. Selective over hunting, facilitated by naiveté to human predation, produced rapid mass extinctions of large animals wherever subsistence societies colonised new landmasses. Taken at face value the circumstantial case for blitzkrieg is compelling and despite a paucity of direct evidence it has gained considerable support. Our review of the model suggests that it overlooks much contradictory data and rests on simplistic interpretations of complex biogeographicat and anthropological phenomena. These interpretations and assumptions do not account for major differences between the biotas, ecologies and human cultures of the landmasses involved. The assertion that responses of remote island species to human predation provide realistic models for those of continental taxa is poorly founded, exaggerating the likely predation efficiency of humans colonising continents. An absence of terrestrial predators over evolutionarily significant periods, together with restricted ranges and small populations, renders island faunas uniquely vulnerable to invaders. The argument, that climate cannot explain these phenomena because previous Glacial Maxima did not cause comparable extinctions, presupposes that their local effects were at least as severe as those of the Last Glacial Maximum. This has yet to be demonstrated and at most it would indirectly support a role for anthropogenic influence, not overkill per se. Overlooked or underplayed are the influences of translocated and other invading species. Similarly, differences in the origins, technologies and traditions of colonising human societies are rarely considered. These factors strongly impact on the predation efficiency, density and range of human populations, critically affecting the outcomes of predator-prey modeling. When a fuller constellation of influences and constraints is considered it is reasonable to posit that rapid mass extinction through selective human predation may largely describe megafaunal extinctions on remote islands, but the argument is not convincing for continents. This is especially so regarding Australia. Because even the largest Australian species were prey to endemic carnivores, their responses to human predation would not have been comparable to those of oceanic island species. No kill-sites or specialized big-game hunting/butchering tools are known and, on the basis of ethnographic and archaeological data, it is probable that predation efficiency, population density and range of the first Australians were insufficient to effect rapid mass extinction. Chronologies of human arrival and the disappearance of megafauna remain poor, but the most recent estimates for human-megafaunal coexistence in Australia range from 10,000 to 43,000 years. Although human predation may have been a contributing factor in megafaunal extinctions, rapid overkill is unlikely to describe the actual mechanism in most instances. The role of human predation and its significance relative to competing factors, human and otherwise, varied considerably between landmasses, as did the speeds with which extinctions occurred. Blitzkrieg and other mono-factorial models are heuristically valuable devices, but a growing body of evidence suggests that extinction can rarely, if ever, be attributed to a single cause.     

The persistence of caffeine in experimentally produced black drink residues

Black drink is a native North American caffeinated tea produced from the leaves of Ilex vomitoria. The beverage was an important part of prehistoric Southeastern culture, as it was the only native source of caffeine in North America. The leaves of I. vomitoria were, therefore, a potentially valuable trade resource during the period. As such, the ability to identify archaeological black drink residues is useful to Southeastern archaeologists. In order to determine the plausibility of detecting I. vomitoria in residues, black drink was repeatedly produced in experimental unglazed pottery. The resulting potsherds were buried in several environmental contexts, recovered, and underwent absorbed pottery residue analysis. After two months of burial in three different soil types, plus a control stored in the freezer, caffeine was well-preserved in all sherds, suggesting that caffeine is a potentially useful biomarker for the detection of black drink.     

National élites,national masses: oral history and the (re)production of the Welsh nation

The paper examines the distinction that has been made in the social science literature on nationalism between national élites and national masses. While the distinction is useful as a way of beginning to conceptualize the mechanisms through which nations and nationalisms are (re)produced, it can also underplay the significance of the iterative relationship that exists between national élites and national masses. We argue that detailed empirical research can enable us to complicate the historical geographies that lead to the production and reproduction of nations. As a way of illustrating the saliency of these claims, we focus on the nationalist agitation—with respect to the campaign for a Welsh higher education—that was taking place in the University College and town of Aberystwyth during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Oral history research with members of the national élite and the national masses, who were active within this campaign, enables us to show the poly-vocal production of the Welsh nation at this time.