Radical Urban Horticulture for Food Autonomy: Beyond the Community Gardens Experience

For those who are interested in radical changes, it is important to analyze the forms of resistance that promote self‐managed practices, also at apparently very small scale. In Italy the experience of “community gardens” is usually named “orti urbani”. In the last 10 years, the occupation of abandoned urban spaces to set up orti urbani has increased within the squatting movement. The case of the city of Rome is interesting because there has been a widespread activity to organize self‐managed spaces to grow fruit and vegetable plants. These initiatives make up not only potential spaces of dense social networking, political action and discussion on environmental issues, but also supporting large food autonomous configurations such as Genuino Clandestino, that are challenging dominant food production. A proliferation of orti urbani located in Social Centers, squatted houses or other abandoned spaces represents a scalar strategy to re‐appropriate and commune urban space.     

Où va la philosophie de la psychiatrie ?Where is going philosophy of psychiatry ?Wohin Geht Die Philosophie Der Psychiatrie ?

This contribution provides a critical outline of the current trends in the field of “philosophy of psychiatry” by following their developments in the last decade. The first part of the paper focuses on the evolution of this field from a strictly conceptual approach to a perspective more attentive to the social, practical, and clinical dimension of psychiatry. The second part of the paper points out that the need of a mutual commitment of philosophy and psychiatry is perceived according to different ways by the countries involved in this research area. The paper deals especially with the case of France, where the enthusiasm for the “new philosophy of psychiatry” has not had the same impact on the philosophical scene as in the English speaking countries. In conclusion, the paper shows that the field of philosophy of psychiatry stands as a fertile ground for new forms of interaction between the analytic, and the continental philosophical traditions. This interaction takes place, more particularly, as regards such topics as normativity, language, and interpretation.     

Dating the Ramat Saharonim Late Neolithic desert cult site

The Ramat Saharonim site, located in the central Negev desert, Israel, consists of four shrines in a shallow valley and 30 tumuli, aligned on two cuesta cliffs on the valley's sides. Previous assessments based on site surveys suggested a general chronological span from Late Neolithic period (ca. 5000–5500 BC) through the Early Bronze Age (third millennium BC). Excavations in one shrine and three tumuli revealed a well-constructed double wall at the shrine and seven primary adult burials in the three tumuli. Quartz from sediment samples post-dating the construction of the burials and shrine was dated by optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) using the single aliquot regenerative dose (SAR) protocol, and charcoal and leather samples were dated by ¹⁴C. The OSL results for a burial in one tumulus are 7500 ± 700 to 6000 ± 600 years. In a second tumulus, OSL ages of 2000 ± 200–1800 ± 170 years and a ¹⁴C age on leather of 390–200 BC (2340–2150 cal BP) imply that this burial is Nabatean and that the site was used also in the Hellenistic period. Two ¹⁴C ages on charcoal from the shrine give an age between 5280 and 4710 BC (7230–6660 cal BP). OSL single aliquot ages for sediment from the shrine are highly scattered and far too old (60,000 to 12,000 years). The unlikely old ages are due to insufficient resetting of the OSL signal of some of the quartz grains when sand was blown onto the site. Indeed, single grain measurements for six samples of sediment postdating the shrine show a very large range of grain ages, but with a distinct young population in all samples. Ages calculated from these young populations average 5400 ± 800, in better consistence with the ¹⁴C dates and confirming our supposition that only some of the transported grains were reset at the time of deposition. The combined OSL and ¹⁴C dating shows that the shrines and tumuli are contemporaneous and attributes the complex to the Late Neolithic. This has clear ramifications for our understanding of the period and the rise of desert pastoral societies.     

Phytolith-rich layers from the Late Bronze and Iron Ages at Tel Dor (Israel): mode of formation and archaeological significance

The presence of many phytolith-rich layers in late Bronze and Iron Age deposits at Tel Dor, Israel, are indicative of specific locations where plants were concentrated. Detailed studies of six of these phytolith-rich layers and associated sediments from Tel Dor show that the phytoliths were derived mainly from wild and domestic grasses. The most common domestic grass was the cereal Triticum aestivum (bread wheat). Three of these layers have a microlaminated microstructure, associated dung spherulites and phosphate nodules; characteristics that all point to the phytolith-rich layers having formed from dung in animal enclosures. In two of the layers, the microlaminated structure is absent while dung spherulites and phosphate nodules are present, suggesting that these too originate from dung that was not deposited in an enclosure. The sixth layer is microlaminated but does not contain spherulites. We thus cannot suggest a parsimonious explanation of its observed properties. Concentrations of burnt phytoliths are present in three locations, implying that dung was either burnt in situ or the ashes from burnt dung were redeposited. The transformation of dung accumulations into phytolith-rich layers involves a loss of organic material and hence a significant reduction in sediment volume, which is clearly apparent in the stratigraphy of some of the locations examined. The volume reduction can be observed in the macrostratigraphy and has important implications with regard to macrostratigraphic interpretation. The presence of abundant phytolith-rich layers on the tell has significant implications for the concept of ‘urbanism’ during these periods.     

Integrating archaeology,archaeometry and geology: local production technology and imports at Paola (Cosenza,Southern Italy)

This paper documents a comprehensive study of coarse wares for table use, serving, washing and cooking, found at the archaeological site of Paola (Cosenza, southern Italy). Major aims of the study were to group local products and imports and to determine technological features of local products. Results were obtained through a combination of archaeological (stratigraphy and ceramic typology), chemical and mineralogical–petrographical techniques (ICP-OES, ICP-MS, INAA, XRF, OM, SEM-EDS and EMPA). Data integration revealed that the coarse wares found at Paola were produced locally or imported over short (Calabria region), medium (Campania, Pantelleria, Sicily) and long distances (Greece and Africa). The local production focused on basins, stewpots, pitchers, bowls, pans, casseroles and lids, sometimes imitating African, or Pompei (Campania) or San Foca (Puglia) typical shapes. The production technology of local ceramics used a sandy–clayey blend of materials collected in the immediate vicinity of the archaeological site, fired at intermediate (about 800 °C) to low (around 650–750 °C) temperatures and used a Fe-rich clayey compound as a red ceramic coating. From a technological perspective, the Paola example arise new questions about table wares produced with clay bodies typical of cooking wares.     

Distinguishing between calcites formed by different mechanisms using infrared spectrometry: archaeological applications

Infrared spectrometry is a well-established method for the identification of minerals. Due to its simplicity and the short time required to obtain a result, it can be practiced on-site during excavation using portable infrared spectrometers. However, the identification of a mineral may not be sufficient. For example, a lime plaster floor and a crushed chalk surface have a similar appearance and are composed of the same mineral – calcite. Here we exploit differences in the infrared spectra of geogenic, biogenic and pyrogenic calcites for the identification of each calcite type. The infrared calcite spectrum has three characteristic peaks in the region of 400–4000 cm⁻¹, designated ν₂, ν₃, and ν₄. When a calcite sample is ground, as part of the measurement preparation procedure, some grinding dependent changes will be revealed in the infrared spectrum. With additional grinding, the ν₃ peak narrows and the heights of the ν₂ and ν₄ peaks decrease, when both are normalized to the ν₃ height. By plotting the normalized heights of the ν₂versus the ν₄ of several grindings of the same sample, a characteristic trend line is formed for each calcite type. The trend lines of geogenic calcites have the shallowest slopes and highest ν₄ values when compared to pyrogenic calcites, which can be further divided to ash and plaster/mortar samples. This method can assist in distinguishing between the various calcites, and provide insights into homogeneity and preservation state of the calcitic materials in question.     

Use of stone hammer tools and anvils by bearded capuchin monkeys over time and space: construction of an archeological record of tool use

Wild bearded capuchins (Sapajus libidinosus) in the cerrado (seasonally dry savannah-like region) of Brazil routinely crack open several species of palm nuts and other hard encased fruits and seeds on level surfaces (anvils) using stones as hammers. At our field site, their nut cracking activity leaves enduring diagnostic physical remains: distinctive shallow depressions (pits) on the surface of the anvil, and cracked shells and stone hammer(s) on or next to the anvil. A monthly survey of the physical remains of percussive tool use at 58 anvils in our study site over a 36-month period revealed repeated use, seasonal consistency, temporal variation, landscape-scale patterning, appearance of new hammers and transport of existing hammers to new anvil sites. Artefactual evidence of the temporal and spatial pattern of tool use collected in the survey is in correspondence with concurrent direct observation of monkeys using and transporting tools at this site. Shell fragments endure for years above ground, suggesting that they may also endure in the strata around anvil sites. The bearded capuchins provide an opportunity to study the construction of percussive tool sites suitable for archeological investigation concurrently with the behavior responsible for the construction of these sites. We suggest several lines of inquiry into tool sites created by capuchin monkeys that may be useful to interpret the archeological evidence of percussive tool use in early humans. Archeologists should be aware that transported stone materials and artificial durable landscape features may be the result of activity by non-human animals.     

Constitutionalism,the Public Philosophy,and Political Science

Examining Willa Cather's corpus of literary works reveals several phases of her illustrious career. After defending commercial culture in O Pioneers! and My Ántonia, her later novels, especially her One of Ours, diagnose an unmediated split in the Western world illustrated by the experience of the Great War: the bourgeois commercial culture undermines aspirations for human greatness. Her later novels deepen this diagnosis and offer a way out in a return to a rooted community of believers living in the shadows of the Church.