Prehistoric Whale Bone Technology in Southern New Zealand

Whale bone was used by Māori throughout New Zealand prehistory as an industrial resource for the manufacture of a range of artefacts. However, the selection of bone and the methods used to process it are poorly understood. This paper details the analysis of a southern right whale (Eubalaena australis) bone working floor that was excavated from a fifteenth‐century coastal fishing camp at Kahukura, on the southeast coast of New Zealand. The whale bone working floor assemblage, comprising a large quantity of debitage fragments, was used to reconstruct reduction methods and to determine the products being made at the site. Rib bones were the main element being worked, and were reduced longitudinally using a chipping technique. The intensive bone working assemblage at Kahukura represents the by‐products from primary processing. This stage focused on reducing the bones into workable portions so that they could be easily transported to another location, where they were likely further reduced into artefacts. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Post-Roman Sequence at Carlisle Cathedral

Excavations in 1988 revealed a stratigraphic sequence extending from the later Roman period to the twelfth century. Of particular interest and importance is a collection of Viking-Age metalwork which, with other material, sheds light on settlement in Carlisle before the arrival of the Normans in 1092.     

The spaces of UK students’ unions: extending the critical geographies of the university campus

This article seeks to further our knowledge of the university campus by focusing on one particular aspect of most UK campuses: the students’ union. UK students’ unions have rarely been the subject of scholarly attention, despite them now occupying an important place within the higher education landscape. Nevertheless, in this paper we draw on a UK-wide study of students’ unions to explore, firstly, the role played by the buildings of the students’ union and, secondly, the ways in which aspects of the university’s campus influence union activity. We pay particular attention to the expansion of the university campus, in many institutions, from a single site to multiple sites, both within the UK and overseas. We contend that a focus on the materiality of the students’ union and the level of union activity (or inactivity) across various campus spaces can illustrate the values, ideologies and power relations that dominate contemporary British higher education.     

Beyond Ideological Conflict: Political Incorporation of Buddhist Youth in the Early PRC

This essay explores the impact of governance on the Chinese religious landscape during the early years of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) through a case study of the Young Buddhist Association (YBA) of Shanghai. Despite the official atheist ideology of the Chinese Communist Party, during this era of New Democracy the YBA experienced Communist governance in practice as a process of political incorporation rather than coercive eradication. As its Buddhist youth movement not only survived the Communist takeover in 1949 but gained momentum well into the 1950s, the YBA was propelled to the forefront of the Buddhist community in Shanghai and became the most active and influential grassroots Buddhist organization in the early PRC. The case of the YBA demonstrates that incorporation into the new political order of the 1950s had transformative effects on the spatial construction, identity formation, and social dynamics of religious communities that cannot be reduced to steps toward their eventual elimination during the Cultural Revolution.     

Unravelling the Relationships between Used‐Clothing Imports and the Decline of African Clothing Industries

African clothing industries have declined since the implementation of economic liberalization policies in the early 1980s whilst used‐clothing imports to Africa have increased. The general effects of economic liberalization on African clothing industries are well documented, although little research has been conducted on the particular impact of increased imports of second‐hand clothes on the local manufacturing sectors. Whether these two processes are causally related is difficult to determine due to limitations in official data sets. In this article, the used‐clothing trade is explored in detail and a broad range of cultural and local economic processes are investigated. Trends such as declining local purchasing power and the opening of African markets to cheap new clothing imports, as well as imports of used‐clothing, are examined, along with the converse boost to African clothing export production resulting from preferential trade agreements in the 2000s. With respect to the differential legal and illegal imports of second‐hand clothing to selected African countries, it is demonstrated that official trade data sets often fail to capture the nuances of contemporary social and economic processes.     

Historians and Political Scientists: Observations on Presidential Studies

Absenteeism on roll call votes in the U.S. House decreased just prior to events of the early 1970s, thus suggesting that the two events are related. Changes during the early 1970s increased the number, the visibility and the pubic accessibility of recorded legislator's decisions. With relevant political actors having easier access to more legislator's decisions, lawmakers have less room to deviate from what they perceive to be the electorally tenable position. While good roll call attendance rates are now the norm, this is even more so in cases of high visibility votes, i.e., conflictual votes and votes of stated presidential concern. Nonetheless, the use of strategic absenteeism by politically conflicted, southern Democrats seems to endure.     

Aspects of the sugar-refining industry from the 16th to the 19th century

This paper considers some aspects of the sugar-refining industry in Britain from the 16th to the 19th century. The pottery types involved are defined, and illustrated by examples from different parts of the country. The method of manufacturing sugar loaves is discussed, and the technology is placed in a wider context, drawing upon archaeological and historical evidence from the Old and New Worlds.     

Toward a theory of the ethnic group: Pitfalls and challenges

E. K. Francis. Interethnic Relations: An Essay in Sociological Theory. New York: Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company, Inc., 1976. xx + 432 pp. Bibliography and index. $22.50.