A spatial analysis of human fertility in Scotland: Reappraisal and extension

In an earlier study of Scottish fertility (Jones, 1975) it was concluded that a substantial part of the areal variability in county and major city Crude Birth Rates could be attributed to variations in age structure and, to a lesser extent, socio‐economic composition. Because Crude Birth Rate levels are affected by population composition this study seeks to determine the extent to which areal variations in reproduction can be attributed to behavioural rather than structural effects. It is suggested that areal differences in Scottish reproductive behaviour reflect well defined, deeply ingrained and temporally persistent differences within Scottish society.     

Partisan identity in the French civil war, 1405–1418: reconsidering the evidence on livery badges

This article examines the efficiency with which John the Fearless used his personal badges during his conflict with Louis of Orleans and the Armagnacs, and questions current thinking on the relationship between the emblems of both parties. As early as 1405, he began distributing emblems that corresponded directly to his ideology: first the carpenter's plane, and from 1410 onwards, his mason's level, two symbols that were representative of his platform for reform. In August 1411, his urban supporters in Paris and elsewhere began wearing crosses of St Andrew, his patron saint, as a means of identifying themselves as Burgundian partisans. This study argues that in making a conscious decision to link his symbols to his ideology, and in making them available to his vassals and urban supporters alike, John the Fearless forged a strong Burgundian community that transcended social barriers. In so doing, he also manufactured an Armagnac anti-community, a tangible entity against which his partisans' animosity was directed from 1411 onwards. As badges of allegiance, the symbols helped fuel a war that had, thus far, remained a private conflict between the princely houses of Burgundy and Orleans.     

Harvesting the Seashores in the Late Mesolithic of Northwestern Europe: A View From Brittany

The shell middens of Brittany provide the last evidence of a Mesolithic way of life along the French Atlantic façade. This is partly a result of Holocene marine transgressions that prevent easy access to earlier coastal settlements. Nevertheless, the dependence on the sea seen in the Late Mesolithic seems to be a consequence of a long-established exploitation system. Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope signatures in human bone reflect a dominance of marine protein, while the zooarchaeological components of shell middens show a high species richness of exploited marine resources. Paleoenvironmental reconstruction suggests that more or less the whole range of resources exploited was accessible in the immediate vicinity of the sites. Seasonal aspects of the utilised and potentially available subsistence resources, along with stable isotope and lithic data, raise the possibility of restricted mobility for these populations, within relatively limited territories. The impression of extreme dependence of these coastal populations on the seashore might have been a key factor in their final disappearance, whether this is viewed as replacement or acculturation. Indeed, the Mesolithic communities of Brittany could have been caught between rising sea-levels and the arrival of Neolithic communities from the east and the south.     

The Icarians and Their Neighbors

This chapter examines the relationships between the mostly French Icarian communists of Illinois, Missouri, and Iowa, and the Midwest communities among which they settled. It gives a thumbnail sketch of the Icarian history in America and then focuses on how the French-speaking, communist Icarians interacted with the English-speaking individualist societies around them in their different localities.     

Glass Trade Beads from the Goose Lake Outlet #3 Site (20MQ140), Marquette County,Michigan

This article describes analyses of the glass trade-bead assemblage of the Goose Lake Outlet #3 (GLO#3) site (20MQ140), a probable short-term winter campsite located in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Based on typological and attribute analysis of the beads, which employed the Kidd and Kidd classification system and comparison with published “glass bead periods” or GBPs developed for assemblages in Ontario, the GLO#3 bead assemblage is assigned a date within the 1630s. Comparison with other midwestern protohistoric assemblages further supports this interpretation. Situated within a protohistoric period of intercultural interaction and exchange, the material culture from the site provides archaeological evidence for some of the earliest arrivals of European-made trade items in the Midwest.