What Explains the Carcass Field Processing and Transport Decisions of Contemporary Hunter-Gatherers? Measures of Economic Anatomy and Zooarchaeological Skeletal Part Representation

This paper uses rationale derived from central place foraging models to explore the factors that guide the carcass processing and transport decisions of modern hunters. Using data derived from butchering experiments, I test different economic indices that purportedly reflect the field processing and transport decisions of contemporary African Hadza hunter-gatherers. The results show that no single index predicts part processing and transport for the species examined in this analysis. Processing and transport decisions are, however, patterned in ways that are consistent with theoretical predictions. While similar processes likely guide carcass treatment and transport decisions among all hunter-gatherers, different ecological, social, and historical constraints define the range of solutions to problems involving carcass treatment. In this specific example, intertaxonomic differences in carcass size and bone properties constrain how the trade-offs between field processing and transport costs are resolved. I conclude by suggesting ways in which analysts might make use of central place foraging rationale and models to explain variation in skeletal representation and abundances across time and space.

A Test of the Effectiveness of the Coimbra Method in Capturing Activity‐induced Entheseal Changes

The current paper tests the effectiveness of entheseal changes in expressing activity patterns when the former have been recorded using the new Coimbra method. Changes on the subscapularis and biceps brachii were recorded using the Coimbra method on 78 men from the documented Athens Collection. Generalised linear models were adopted with entheseal changes as dependent variable and cross‐sectional geometric properties, age and body mass as predictors. The results suggest that age is the factor most frequently affecting entheseal changes; however, its impact is not as systematic as found in previous studies. Body mass is rarely statistically significant, again contradicting earlier studies. Finally, activity proxied by cross‐sectional geometric properties is occasionally significant, but no clear pattern emerges that can associate specific entheseal morphological changes with specific directions of mechanical loading. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Models of disability,ideas of justice,and the challenge of full participation

The definitions of disability adopted in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) necessitate an important change in the way disability is assessed and introduce a new idea of justice in relation to persons with disabilities. The article starts by reviewing the various ‘models of disability’ prevailing in the past and the respective ideas of justice underlying them. The charity model, for instance, was rooted in ideas of divine justice and human beneficence, where care for the disabled led in practice to their being segregated from the rest of society, while the medical model saw justice in terms of treatments or compensations for individual pathologies rather than of positive enablement for active living. The CRPD overturns these models and the related conceptions of justice by emphasising society's obligations towards persons with disabilities and, above all, their human right to full inclusion and participation in society. The key concepts are empowerment and capability. In Italy these concepts and this new conception of justice have started to be applied by the Osservatorio nazionale sulla condizione delle persone con disabilità, the body created to monitor the effective application of the CRPD in Italy, and they are included in the two-year action programme on disability, approved by the Italian government in October 2013.     

Prediction Models for Age‐at‐Death Estimates for Calves,Using Unfused Epiphyses and Diaphyses

For cattle (Bos taurus), age estimations using dental criteria before the eruption of the first molar (3–8 months) have large error margins. This hampers archaeozoological investigation into perinatal mortality or the putative slaughtering of very young calves for milk exploitation. Previous ageing methods for subjuveniles have focused on the length of unfused bones, but it is rarely possible to use them because they are restricted to foetuses and because of the fragmentation of bones. This paper presents new age prediction models based on length, breadth and depth of post cranial bones produced from a dataset of modern calves (n = 27). This reference collection was compiled from material of known age at death, sex and breed from collections in Britain, France, Germany and Switzerland. Linear regression models were constructed using the modern data for age prediction, and these models were then successfully tested and assessed using a Middle Neolithic assemblage of complete calves' skeletons from Bourguignon‐Lès‐Morey, France. From the assessment, the astragalus and metapodials were determined to be the most reliable bones, and the femur was the worst. Measurements of the epiphyseal and distal elements and depth measurements were the most reliable. For ages before 12 months, these models can provide ±1 month age estimates. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

五德终始说与汉代史学的正统观念

中国古代的五德终始说,包括土木金火水五行相胜与木火土金水五行相生两个系统.作为一种解释王朝更替和历史变易的学说,五德终始说对于秦汉时期的政治有着重要的影响.同时,五德终始说提出的古史系统和内蕴的经世意识与正统观念,则对于以司马迁和班固为代表的汉代史学的历史撰述与史学思想都产生了深刻的影响.汉代史学构建的古史系统所蕴含的正统观念,以及以《汉书》为代表的中国正统史学的出现,与五德终始历史学说的影响是分不开的.     

The Re-Assessment and Reconstruction of Excavated Boats

In response to papers by John Coates and by Owain Roberts, the author re-evaluates mid- to late-20th-century reconstruction drawings and models of prehistoric sewn-plank boats Ferriby 1 and Brigg 2. He concludes that an impartial and informed group should re-examine all surviving evidence for these boats and then build a small-scale 'as-found' model of each one. After being subjected to criticism, these models could become the basis for generally-agreed reconstruction models of the original form and structure of these two boats. A similar process would be the best way ahead for the Dover sewn-plank boat.
© 2007 The Author     

Understanding Prehistoric Lithic Raw Material Selection: Application of a Gravity Model

Provenance studies can tell us which sources of lithic raw material were used in the past, but can they tell us why? After all, many factors can have entered into a person’s choice to use one source rather than another. Those factors can be grouped into two categories, the geologic/geographic characteristics of the source itself (quality, abundance, size of pieces, etc.), and the human factors (direction of travel, time available, social restrictions, etc.). This paper demonstrates how the geologic/geographic characteristics can be quantified and calculated together to give one value, the attractiveness of the source, which can then be used in a gravity model approach to predict which sources ‘should’ have been used more than others. Deviations from the predicted pattern point to situations where the human factors were of greater or lesser importance. The values are also used to delineate geographical areas within which particular sources would be likely to be used (‘areas of influence’), which gives us a useful new way of understanding the landscape within which the prehistoric group lived.     

The Iron Butterfly and the Political Warrior: mobilising models of femininity in the Australian Liberal Party

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and former Prime Minister Tony Abbott's Chief of Staff Peta Credlin have experienced very different political fortunes. Once the two most powerful women in the Australian Liberal Party, Credlin's political demise was mired in controversy, while Bishop continues to enjoy the support of her Party and the public. While there are many reasons for this, the article focuses on the gendered politics surrounding their experiences. Based on analysis of the media representations of Bishop and Credlin between 2011 and 2015, we argue that Bishop successfully negotiates gender politics by deploying the Iron Butterfly model of conservative femininity, while Credlin's fierce Political Warrior persona saw her pilloried.     

Does geographical location matter for ethnic wage gaps?

This paper analyzes ethnic wage gaps in Great Britain by comparing minorities to majority workers in the same local labor market and focuses on the variation of wage gaps across areas. As wage gaps vary across areas, using one single national measure may be misleading. Higher wage gaps across groups are associated with higher occupational segregation and ethnic diversity, while higher wage gaps within groups are associated with higher regional specialization and proportion of co-ethnics. Policies could help by improving job location and selection into occupations across groups.     

Evidence for SiO2‐NaCl complexing in H2O‐NaCl solutions at high pressure and temperature

Experimental studies reveal complex dissolution behavior of quartz in aqueous NaCl solutions at high temperature and pressure, involving variation from salting‐in to salting‐out that changes with temperature, pressure, and salt concentration. The behavior is not explainable by traditional electrostatic theory. An alternative hypothesis appeals to complexing of SiO₂ with NaCl and can explain the observations. However, the hypothesis of complexing, as previously applied, is inadequate in several respects: it neglects polymerization of solute silica, regards the SiO₂‐NaCl hybrid complex(es) as anhydrous, which seems unlikely, and invokes an incorrect stoichiometry of the hydrated silica monomer, now known to be Si(OH)₄?2H₂O. These neglected features can be incorporated into the complexing model in a revised formulation based on a simple thermodynamic analysis using existing quartz solubility data. The analysis leads to a quasi‐ideal solution model with silica monomers, dimers, and two distinct hydrous SiO₂‐NaCl hybrid complexes with overall NaCl:H₂O = 1:6, one Na‐bearing and one Cl‐bearing. Their (equal) molar concentrations (X_hc) are governed by a pressure‐ and temperature‐dependent equilibrium constant, , where a_Nacl and are the respective activities of the solvent components. The stability of the hybrid complexes (i.e., their concentration) is very sensitive to H₂O activity. The entire set of experimental quartz‐solubility data at 700°C, 1–15 kbar, is reproduced with high fidelity by the expression (P is pressure in kbar), including the transition from low‐pressure salting‐in to high pressure salting‐out. The results indicate that hybrid SiO₂‐NaCl complexes are the main hosts for dissolved silica at NaCl concentrations greater than 6 wt%, which are likely common in crustal fluids. At higher temperatures, approaching the critical end point in the system SiO₂‐H₂O, the model becomes progressively inaccurate, probably because polymers higher than the dimer become significant as SiO₂ concentration increases.