Otosclerosis and stapedial footplate fixation in archaeological material

A total of 1164 temporal bones from various cemetery sites in England were examined using a fibre optic endoscope. Eight bones were found to have evidence of otosclerosis in which proliferative new bone fixes the footplate of the stapes into the oval window, causing deafness. A prevalence of 0.9 per cent in this study is comparable with the incidence found in modern white populations and with that found in a study of 2760 Lithuanian temporal bones of various periods.     

Diameter of the human internal acoustic meatus and sex determination

We report the results of testing the diameter of the internal opening of the acoustic canal in the petrous part of the temporal bone for sex determination of skeletal remains. The method involves measuring the diameter using a suite of ordinary drills. The method is very simple and has the great advantage of utilising one of the sturdiest bone elements of the human skeleton. The method may be especially useful for the analyses of very fragmented skeletal remains or cremated bones, where the petrous bone may still be readily recognisable. The method was tested using a forensic sample of 113 left petrous bones with known sex. Intra‐ and inter‐observer testing was also performed. We found a statistically significant difference in diameter between males and females (means: males: 3.7 mm; females: 3.4 mm; P < 0.009). However, the low predictive value (70%) for correct sexing using two sectioning points ( < 3.0 mm = female; >3.5 mm = male) was disappointing. No additional accuracy was gained by employing both left and right petrous bones (a bilateral sample of 60 petrous bones was also tested), although left and right side diameter is highly correlated (R = 0.778; P = 0.0001). Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Pig exploitation in the southern Kanto region,Japan

This study investigates changes in past human and animal relationships by focusing on pig (Sus scrofa) remains excavated from archaeological sites in southern Kanto, Japan. Pigs and humans have had a close relationship since prehistoric times and the process of change in this relationship, including possible domestication, is one of the major issues in Japanese zooarchaeology. This study attempts to gain a better understanding of the nature of past interaction between humans and pigs by investigating their relative importance compared with other vertebrate remains, kill‐off patterns, and changes in their size and shape at these sites. The materials used for this study date from the Earliest to Final Jomon (ca. 10,000–2500 BP), Yayoi (ca. 2500–1700 BP) and Kofun (ca. 1700–1300 BP) periods. The relative proportions of pigs were calculated to show the overall trend of pig exploitation in each site. Age at death was obtained based on the state of tooth eruption. Bucco‐lingual crown measurements were taken on the third and fourth premolars and on each cusp of the first and second molars of the mandible, and the logarithmic ratio technique was then applied to these data. The age structure of Sus varies between different sites in the Jomon Period, and significant changes were observed in the Yayoi and Kofun Periods. A decrease in the relative proportion of pigs in the faunal assemblages was observed from Jomon to Kofun. Three major differences were observed in the size of pigs. The overall size of pigs significantly increased from Early to Middle Jomon, whilst a decrease in size occurred in the Yayoi Period. Finally, overall size increased significantly during the Kofun Period. Together with the archaeological evidence—such as the ritual burial of pigs accompanying human burial—we suggest that the interaction between pigs and humans became gradually stronger at some sites during the Late Jomon Period, and the relationship intensified in the Yayoi Period. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

1. INTRODUCTION: MULTIPLE TIMES AND THE WORK OF SYNCHRONIZATION

In this essay, which introduces the History and Theory forum on Multiple Temporalities, I want to discuss how the existence of a plurality or a multiplicity of times has been conceptualized in the historiographical tradition, partly by entering into a dialogue with recent writers, historians, philosophers, sociologists, anthropologists, and literary scholars, partly by returning to the eighteenth century, to the origin of “the modern regime of historicity” (Hartog). In these theoretical and historical investigations I aim to do two things: on the one hand, to explore and discuss different ways of conceptualizing multiple times, in terms of nonsynchronicities, layers of time, or natural and historical times; on the other hand, to trace how these multiple times have been compared, unified, and adapted by means of elaborate conceptual and material practices that I here call “practices of synchronization.” From the eighteenth century onward, these synchronizing practices, inspired by, but by no means reducible to, chronology have given rise to homogeneous, linear, and teleological time, often identified as modern time per se, or simply referred to as “progress.” In focusing on the practices of synchronization, however, I want to show how this regime of temporality during its entire existence, but especially at the moment of its emergence in the eighteenth century and at the present moment of its possible collapse, has been challenged by other times, other temporalities, slower, faster, with other rhythms, other successions of events, other narratives, and so on.     

魏晋南北朝时期疫灾时空分布规律研究

魏晋南北朝时期是中国历史上的第一个疫灾高峰期,疫灾频度平均为21.0%,其中西晋时期疫灾最为频繁,疫灾频度高达34.6%。夏季是疫灾流行的最主要的季节,约41%的疫灾发生在夏季。疫灾周期具有波幅越来越小、波长越来越短的趋势。在空间分布上,疫灾范围有逐步扩大的趋势,疫灾重心有由北向南迁移的趋势,都城所在地为疫灾多发区,都城区位的变迁影响着疫灾重心的变迁。三国时期的疫灾重心在河南,西晋时期的疫灾重心在陕西与河南,东晋以后的疫灾重心在江苏。总体来看,经济相对发达、人口相对稠密、战争相对频仍的黄河中下游地区、长江中下游地区以及它们之间的淮河流域是魏晋南北朝时期疫灾的主要流行区域。     

Brazilian Horrors Past and Present: José Mojica Marins and Politics As Reproductive Futurism

Director José Mojica Marins is both the mastermind and actor behind Zé do Caixão, an icon within Brazilian popular culture and an international cult sensation. Marins encountered numerous conflicts with Brazil’s military dictatorship, and after producing the first two films of an intended trilogy, At Midnight I’ll Take Your Soul (1964) and This Night I’ll Possess Your Corpse (1967), the third film, Embodiment of Evil, was not made until 2008. Throughout this trilogy, Zé do Caixão kidnaps, tortures, and murders scores of victims, effectively mimicking the human rights abuses that occurred under the dictatorship. He advocates liberation from the oppression of traditional morality while reinscribing its rhetorical raison d’être: purpose through procreation. The popular appeal of these films, their political intentionality, and their production during and after the dictatorship allow for an analysis of the rhetorical strategies employed by Marins in his attempt to both shock audiences and instill in them a counterhegemonic consciousness. Despite the radical agenda at work in Marins’s films, I will argue that this trilogy is conservative in its rhetorical framework, serving as an example of Lee Edelman’s reproductive futurism, wherein political legitimacy is contingent upon procreation.     

Spatio‐Temporal Modelling As A Way to Reconstruct Patterns of Past Human Activities

This paper examines the possibilities of creating quantified models of past human activities in both time and space. The study area lies in the south‐eastern Czech Republic and western Slovakia. The spatio‐temporal model of behavioural categories was calculated with the help of Monte Carlo simulations and statistical testing. One of the main advantages of our approach is that it admits the probabilistic nature of input data, quantifies them and provides probabilistic results comparable with other proxies. It also presents a less biased way of how archaeological data from regions and periods with low numbers of ¹⁴C datings can be incorporated into models of past population dynamics.     

Evidence for temporal and social differences in cranial dimensions in Edo‐period Japanese

This study examined the craniometric traits of the Edo‐period (AD1603–1867) human skeletons from the Hitotsubashi site in Tokyo, compared them with temporally and socially various populations, and attempted to detect the morphological differentiation patterns that the Edo‐period Japanese exhibited over time and under those social/environmental conditions. The materials measured here were the townsmen's crania from the Hitotsubashi site, which were dated back to the early half of the Edo period. The observations revealed that the Hitotsubashi samples were more dolichocephalic than any other Edo series and were different from subsequent Edo series in terms of larger maximum cranial length and smaller maximum cranial breadth. The Hitotsubashi samples were definitely in contrast with those of Tentokuji and Shirogane, both of which included a samurai (warrior) class of the late to final Edo period and exhibited the most brachycephalic crania. It is reasonable to assume that the temporal and social situations were possibly related to the observed cranial variation and that the temporal changes in cranial dimensions in pre‐modern Japan might have reflected the nutritional and environmental conditions. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

基于遥感数据的中亚五国城市时空扩展变化研究

借助遥感与GIS技术,以1990年LandsatTM和2000年Landsat ETM+遥感影像为数据来源,提取中亚5国首都城市建设用地信息。计算1990年和2000年中亚5国首都城市的城市扩展强度、城市年扩展速率及城市形状紧凑度,对中亚地区五国城市扩展的时空变化进行定量分析。结果表明:1990年和2000年,中亚5国首都城市扩展强度指数和城市扩展速度差距较大,其中阿什哈巴德的扩展强度指数和城市扩展速度最大,分别为0.93、4.6,而最小的是杜尚别,分别只有0.001、2.6,二者相差悬殊。而紧凑度变化幅度不大,2000年,杜尚别、塔什干的紧凑度较大,分别为0.6、0.46,其城市结构更为紧凑,用地集约程度增大,而阿斯塔纳、比什凯克和阿什哈巴德城市结构相对较为松散。同时,中亚五国首都城市空间向外扩张、向内填充的强度、方向各不相同,从而呈现出各自的扩展特点。     

Heinrich Klüver and the temporal lobe syndrome*

Abstract

Heinrich Klüver and Paul Bucy described a constellation of symptoms in monkeys following large resections of the temporal lobe that they termed the “temporal lobe syndrome”; now commonly referred to as the Klüver‐Bucy syndrome. The aim of this paper is threefold: (1) to review Heinrich Klüver's behavioral studies on monkeys that led up to his temporal lobe experiments with Paul Bucy; (2) to understand why Brown and Schäfer dismissed the behavioral changes in temporal lobe monkeys they had observed fifty years prior to the studies of Klüver and Bucy; and (3) to show that Klüver's phenomenologically motivated conceptual paradigm helped to unify both neuropsychological and neuroanatomical theories regarding the visual and emotive functions of the non‐human primate temporal lobe.