Three Twentieth-Century Multiauthored Neurological Handbooks – A Historical Analysis and Bibliometric Comparison

The emergence of neurology as a separate specialty from internal medicine and psychiatry took several decades, starting at the end of the nineteenth century. This can be adequately reconstructed by focusing on the establishment of specialized journals, societies, university chairs, the invention and application of specific instruments, medical practices, and certainly also the publication of pivotal textbooks in the field. Particularly around 1900, the German-speaking countries played an integral role in this process. In this article, one aspect is extensively explored, notably the publication (in the twentieth century) of three comprehensive and influential multivolume and multiauthor handbooks entirely devoted to neurology. All available volumes of Max Lewandowsky's Handbuch der Neurologie (1910–1914) and the Handbuch der Neurologie (1935–1937) of Oswald Bumke and Otfrid Foerster were analyzed. The handbooks were then compared with Pierre Vinken's and George Bruyn's Handbook of Clinical Neurology (1968–2002).

Over the span of nearly a century these publications became ever more comprehensive and developed into a global, encompassing project as is reflected in the increasing number of foreign authors. Whereas the first two handbooks were published mainly in German, “Vinken & Bruyn” was eventually published entirely in English, indicating the general changes in the scientific language of neurology after World War II. Distinctions include the uniformity of the series, manner of editorial involvement, thematic comprehensiveness, inclusion of volume editors in “Vinken & Bruyn,” and the provision of index volumes. The increasing use of authorities in various neurological subspecialties is an important factor by which these handbooks contrast with many compact neurological textbooks that were available at the time.

For historiographical purposes, the three neurological handbooks considered here were important sources for the general study of the history of medicine and science and the history of neurology in particular. Moreover, they served as important catalyzers of the emergence of neurology as a new clinical specialty during the first decades of the twentieth century.     

Contesting Marshall Sahlins on Kinship

In a recent two‐part article on the nature of kinship, Marshall Sahlins maintains that performative criteria for kin‐reckoning are at least as salient as procreative ones, and that, at conception, an individual is endowed with a wide circle of kin, including the ancestral dead. For both reasons, he argues, there is no warrant for granting privileged status to what anthropologists have called ‘primary’ kinship. The contentions here are that performative criteria are modeled upon procreative ones; that ties to ancestral figures are seen as antithetical to procreative ties; and that, therefore, all kinship constructs are derived from nuclear family relationships. Evidence in support of these contentions is provided from the Mae Enga, Fiji, the Trobriands, and Aboriginal Australia.     

Characteristics of Oman's archaeological resource: a preliminary review of management prospects

This paper is a preliminary overview of the main characteristics of the archaeological resource of Oman from a management perspective. It looks at the resource in terms of form, space and time. It covers a pilot statistical analysis of the archaeological data so far input into the proposed National Archaeological Database of Oman (NADO). The main findings of this analysis show that the management of Omani archaeological resource lacks a well‐defined strategic research plan, and that there are large research gaps in many geographical and chronological areas. It also shows that the governmental organisations responsible for the management of the country's archaeological resource are not taking into consideration the potential benefits of archaeological records in their management practices.     

Corporate kin-groups,social memory,and “history houses”? A quantitative test of recent reconstructions of social organization and building function at Çatalhöyük during the PPNB

It has been argued that the corporate kin-group was the main form of socioeconomic organization at the Turkish site of Çatalhöyük during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB). This hypothesis is linked to a claim of long-term repetitive patterning in the use of household space. Çatalhöyük's corporate kin-groups, it is suggested, would have been maintained by social memory, and social memory would have been created by the repeated rebuilding of houses with the same floor plan and by the burial of important members of the corporate kin-groups under house floors. This hypothesis been taken up by a number of authors in recent years. However, it is not clear how much confidence should be invested in the hypothesis as the use of household space at Çatalhöyük during the PPNB has not been subject to formal evaluation. With this in mind, we carried out a study in which we examined the relationship between continuity in house floor plans and the percentage of houses that contain burials. To assess the co-variation between these variables, we developed a GIS-based method of quantifying house wall continuity, and then subjected the resulting index and a number of other variables, including the percentage of houses that contain burials, to factor analysis. The results of the analyses do not support the hypothesis. The house-wall continuity index and the percentage of houses that contains burials load on different factors, which indicates that they do not co-vary through time. This is contrary to the predictions of the corporate kin-group hypothesis. Thus, claims that during the PPNB Çatalhöyük's occupants formed corporate kin groups that were maintained by social memory and “history houses” should be curtailed and interpretations built on this hypothesis should be viewed with suspicion.     

Branch age and diameter: useful criteria for recognising woodland management in the present and past?

When prehistoric archaeological sites yield non-carbonised wood, one of the ways to test for management practices consisting of pollarding and coppicing is analysis of branch diameter and age. However, the interpretation of such data is often based on assumptions. To test whether it is in fact possible to identify past woodland management on the basis of age/diameter analysis in archaeological wood assemblages, this paper presents models that predict the expected age and diameter distribution of branches from unmanaged and managed trees. The models have been tested using data on modern-day Alnus glutinosa, Fraxinus excelsior and species of the genus Salix. Branches of modern-day unmanaged and managed trees with a diameter up to approx. 2 cm (not an absolute limit) have a comparable age. Branches with a diameter of approx. 2–6 cm from unmanaged trees are older than similar branches from managed trees. The age distribution in the latter also ends abruptly. The age/diameter data from the modern-day trees indicate that the models can be used to discern management in the past, if branches up to approx. 2 cm in diameter are avoided and if, critically, taxon, sample size, growing conditions, natural disturbance/opportunistic wood collection and the possibility of diameter selection are taken into account. Archaeological datasets mainly from prehistoric sites are then reinterpreted by means of comparison with the models. Indications of management in prehistory as demonstrated by age/diameter are scarce but available. There is thus a clear need for further research in this field. Practical suggestions are provided for improving the quality of future research on woodland management practices by means of branch age/diameter analysis.     

Morphometry of Middle Bronze Age palstaves. Part II – spatial distribution of shapes in two typological groups,implications for production and exportation

For archaeologists, metallic artifacts are key materials to assess Middle Bronze Age production areas and cultural exchanges. Here, a set of 629 bronze palstaves excavated in northern France, belonging to Breton and Norman typological groups, was treated by (open) outline-based morphometrics with orthogonal polynomial regression. Using robust statistics developed for outlier detection, these Norman and Breton palstave outlines can be divided into two groups: those for which the shape fluctuates close to the standard shape, called “congruent” axes, and those which are far enough from this standard to be considered as “non-congruent”, although they possess most of the features of the typological group. The highest density of discovery (whether congruent and non-congruent in shape) is in the extreme east of Brittany for the Breton axes, while the Norman axes are concentrated in northern Normandy, hence the choice of names. However, the distribution of congruent and non-congruent artifacts appears to be spatially dependent for the Norman group, and to a lesser extent for the Breton group, as there are proportionally more congruent specimens inside the supposed production areas than outside. This contradicts the generally accepted archaeological scheme which hypothesizes that all axes in a group originate from the same production center, and that some items were exported from there to supply neighboring regions. Other minor production centers probably existed, copying the original model with greater shape variation.     

A 3D morphometric analysis of surface geometry in Levallois cores: patterns of stability and variability across regions and their implications

Levallois cores and products were manufactured by hominin populations distributed across wide regions of Africa and Eurasia. Levallois technology remains an important focus for research in Palaeolithic archaeology, yet quantitative morphological comparisons of Levallois core morphology from different regions remain rare. Here, utilizing Levallois cores from Africa, the Near East, Europe, and the Indian subcontinent, patterns of morphological variability in the shape of the Levallois flaking surface and core outline (margin) shape were examined for patterns of variability and stability across regions using 3D geometric morphometrics. The multivariate statistical shape analyses undertaken revealed a clear pattern: that is, the greatest levels of shape variability in Levallois cores is evident in the form of their outline (planform) shape. Conversely, the geometrical relationship between the margin of the Levallois cores and their topological surface morphology was relatively uniform. This pattern of variability was evident in terms of variation both across regions and between cores from the same locality. These results indicate that the outline form of such cores was a less important variable than the geometric/topological properties of the surface morphology and, in particular, the relationship between the margin of the core and those variables. These results have implications for why it has been reported that replicating such cores in modern experiments is a particularly difficult task. The specific interrelationship between the geometric properties of the core and the core margin provide further evidence that Levallois core technology would be unlikely to emerge from the context of opportunistic migrating platform reduction strategies (such as those seen in many Mode 1 industries). If, as is widely suggested, Levallois cores were deliberate products in Pleistocene contexts, these results also hint that relatively sophisticated means of social transmission (i.e. teaching) may have been required to sustain their production over time and space.     

Paleodietary analysis of a San Francisco Bay Area shellmound: stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis of late Holocene humans from the Ellis Landing site (CA-CCO-295)

The late Holocene archaeofaunal record of the San Francisco Bay Area demonstrates temporal declines in the abundance of low-cost, high-ranked marine and terrestrial resources. During later periods of occupation, faunal assemblages are often dominated by lower-ranked, higher-cost resources, suggesting an increase in diet breadth through time. Archaeological resource intensification models argue that this marks a late Holocene decline in foraging efficiency in the Bay Area, driven by human-induced harvest pressure. This study examines dietary change in the region using stable carbon and nitrogen isotope data from 65 human burials, spanning two temporal components (cal AD 55–890 and cal AD 762–1550) at the Ellis Landing site (CA-CCO-295). The strong linear relationship between collagen carbon and nitrogen isotope values reflects both marine and terrestrial food consumption, with individuals showing a high level of dietary variability at the site. No temporal trend or meaningful sex differences were found in isotope values. The widening of diet breadth predicted by the archaeofaunal record occurred prior to the occupation of the Ellis Landing shellmound site. The trend in exploiting a greater amount of terrestrial resources during the Middle and Late Period in central California was supported by isotopic evidence.     

Micro-sampling of human bones for mobility studies: diagenetic impacts and potentials for elemental and isotopic research

The nature of long bone formation and the pathways of interaction between bone samples and the burial environment suggest that portions of the bones disconnected from the arterial system are resistant to diagenetic alteration. Preliminary work on femurs from Early Bronze Age hunter-gatherers in Cis-Baikal, Siberia shows that the nature and progression of chemical changes in the bone matrix due to microbial attack can be analyzed using laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Intra-osteon variability in elemental concentrations and strontium isotope ratios (⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr) indicate the presence of unaltered portions of bone within diagenetically modified bone and suggest that useful data remain accessible. These biogenic signals can potentially be useful for mobility research in broad terms and the smaller timescales within an individual's lifetime (months, years), accessible therein. Laser ablation micro-sampling of femur specimens showed that intra-osteon elemental composition of Ba, Re, and Cs varied within and was correlated between multiple osteons of a single bone. Portions of chemically unaffected bone were identified within, and effectively discriminated from diagenetically altered bone tissue. Areas showing visual alterations and erratic or uncorrelated Ca and Sr elemental results also had anomalous Sr isotope ratios, suggesting diagenetic alteration in those places. Compositional and isotopic analysis of intact portions of bone supports the hypothesis that hunter-gatherer groups in Cis-Baikal made numerous major movements during their lives. Microscopic analysis of long bones clarifies aspects of biodeterioration and correlations between trace elemental results and diagenetic alteration. Micro-sampling of intact portions of bone expands the scope of available materials for research on mobility and other aspects of human past behavior.