Visa Stupidity

This paper describe the author’s experiences when he has applied for visas in a range of countries, including Germany, the UK, Japan, China and the USA. In 22 years of international travel, he has never been refused a visa, though he has been unable to obtain a visa in time on several occasions, and this has cause him to be unable to attend meetings, even when he is fully funded, and has applied for a visa well in advance.     

West African Perspective of the World Archaeological Congress: Challenges and Aspirations

This paper looks at how the West African region was involved in the early history and formulation of the World Archaeological Congress. In particular, it describes events around the 9th Congress of the Pan-African Association of Prehistory and Related Studies, held in Jos, Nigeria, in 1983. The question of apartheid South Africa came up in the plenary session of that meting. A resolution was adopted condemning apartheid, and calling for the cessation of all contacts with South African institutions, and for the censure of colleagues and institutions maintaining links with South Africa. This later became the core of the WAC approach to South Africa, adopted by the organizers of the Southampton Congress. Looking ahead, formidable obstacles remain for West African archaeology, many of them structural in nature. Punitive visa requirements, currency crises and the scarcity of resources all prevent West African scholars from participating fully in global scholarship.     

Other Political Animals: Aristotle and the Limits of Political Community

In recent years there has been a resurgence of interest in the philosophical underpinnings of the human-animal distinction among political theorists, suggesting a possible sea change in how relationships between animals and humans are understood. Yet despite this interest, Aristotle’s famous dicta that “man is a political animal” and that only “beasts and gods” might live without politics persist as the best-known statements on humans and animals and how they relate politically. This essay draws on Aristotle’s biological writings in order to qualify these statements, outlining two opposing threads in Aristotle’s thought: one where humans are seen to be similar to other political animals and hence capable of sharing in political community, and the second where humans are seen to be unlike other animals by virtue of their relation with the divine. I argue that the problems that inform Aristotle’s way of understanding the similarities and differences between humans and animals and between members of a political community challenge recent theoretical attempts to include other animals in the human political community.     

The Archaeology and Ethnoarchaeology of Soap and Dye Making at Ijaye, Yorubaland

The study reports the use of ethnographic parallels to interpret excavated relics at Ijaye. Following some limited reconnaissance, archaeological relics, which included mounds and a ditch and embankment, were identified. Three test pits were dug on one of the mounds while an extensive excavation was carried out on another. The major excavation uncovered large pots placed on top of one another and arranged in a row. Ethnographic data were sought in some neighboring Yoruba settlements to understand the features uncovered in the excavations. Probable interpretation was soap and/or dye making.L'étude rapporte sur l'emploi des matières ethnographiques pour l'interprétation des vestiges trouvées à Ijaye. A la suite des prospections limitées, des vestiges archéologiques ont été identifiées, parmi lesquelles étaient des amas et un fossé et rempart. Trois sondages ont été effectués sur un des amas, et une fouille a été effectuée sur un autre. Des grandes jarres entassées les unes sur les autres ont été découvertes dans la fouille. Les données ethnographiques ont été recherchées en des villes voisinantes pour bien comprendre des vestiges retrouvées en fouille. L'interprétation probable était la fabrication du savon et/ou teinture.     

Lifetimes of Disposability and Surplus Entrepreneurs in Bagong Barrio,Manila

Working in collaboration with Migrante International and drawing on testimony of residents in the remittance‐dependent, migrant‐sending community of Bagong Barrio in Caloocan City in Metro Manila, Philippines, we examine the systematic production of lifetimes of disposability that drives labour migration across the generations. The closure of factories and contractualisation of work in the 1980s created the conditions in which labour migration is not a choice but a necessity. Diligent use of remittances to pay for the education of their children in many cases has produced a new generation of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), and investment in housing often is another route to OFW status. Alongside this narrative of ongoing precarity, we listen closely to the testimony of residents for ways of living that are both subsumed within and somewhat excessive to accounts that might render their lives as merely waste or wasted.     

Putting the Records Straight: ‘What is up with WAC?’

This paper is a reaction to the paper of Nick Shepherd and Alejandro Haber titled ??What is up with WAC? Archaeology and ??Engagement?? in a Globalised World??, published in Public Archaeology volume 10, number 2 of May 2011. Having been associated with WAC since its inception in 1986 and having been a player in all the programmes criticized by Nick Shepherd and Alejandro Haber, I am reluctantly obliged to provide some information to put the records straight. WAC being a true worldwide organization (not just international) has membership from different social, cultural, linguistic, political, economic, religious and ideological backgrounds. This calls for mutual respect and conscious effort to understand people and their points of view and also to be very sensitive to our differences. Summing up issues in the context of simplistic ??globalised world?? is big error of judgment.     

Garu Kime: A Late Borno Fired-Brick Site at Monguno,NE Nigeria

Abstract  

This paper primarily presents analyses from geophysical data and archaeological remains collected at one of a few known sites to the west of Lake Chad associated with fired-brick structures. It reports on previous fieldwork at the location, considers its alleged relationship with the early history of the Borno kingdom and then turns to present new data that provide fresh insights into the physical appearance, dating, material remains, economy and environment of the site. A brief discussion of the historical purpose of the fired-brick structures and the site itself concludes the paper.