Archaeometric analysis of ceramic production in Tiwanaku state (c.500–1000 ce): An exploratory study

The chemical and mineralogical characterization of seven ceramic fragments produced within Tiwanaku state (c.500–1000 ce ) is reported. The instrumental techniques used included X‐ray elemental and mineralogical chemical analysis, Raman spectroscopy, and scanning and light microscopy. The results indicate there are several clay types, although they show similarities, such as the use of a plant‐based temper. The red colour of the decoration is hematite, and manganese oxides such as jacobsite are present in the black. The white colour is a mixture of gypsum and clay, and the orange is a mixture of hematite and clay. The use of colours, the quality of the clays and the temperatures reached during pottery firing point to expertise in ceramic production and to complex decision‐making processes. The multi‐elemental archaeometric approach documented here could become an important tool to shed a light on ancient ceramic technology and the internal variance of Tiwanaku pottery.     

Dams,Diversions, and Development: Slow Resistance and Authoritarian Rule in the Salween River Basin

We engage geography's longstanding debate on what “counts” as resistance by introducing slow resistance to account for temporal-political strategies against unjust developments, particularly under authoritarian conditions. We draw on over a decade of fieldwork in the Salween River Basin where dams and diversions have been proposed since 1979, including the most recent iteration, the Yuam River water diversion project in Northwest Thailand. We find that resistance by impacted communities and civil society encompasses slow, strategic, and considered actions over time and generations. Such resistance is necessarily protracted to contest developments (re)proposed over decades. By foregrounding the strategic use of time and temporality, we highlight often overlooked actions and strategies of resistance by a diverse range of actors, showing how resistance movements are incremental and interconnected over time, even when “under the radar”. These strategies are key to contesting and (re)shaping the conditions of development in the Basin.     

Framing indigenous self-recognition: the visual and cultural work of the politics of recognition

Visual and cultural modes of expression and intercultural engagement have broad implications for recognition politics. Recognition-based strategies for the governance of Indigenous difference in settler colonies engage in an economy of perception that capitalises on the currency of inclusion and diversity. This paper explores the visual and cultural fields of recognition politics in the Canadian settler state through the examples of the 2008 Apology from the federal government for Indian Residential Schools and the stained-glass window – Giniigaaniimenaaning (Looking Ahead) by Métis artist Christi Belcourt – commissioned to commemorate the Apology. The paper uses Judith Butler’s concepts of recognisability and framing to make sense of these events as legitimations of settler colonialism. It goes on to explore the possibility of rupture in the inherent instability of ‘frames of recognition’, in Butler’s terms, and uses Jolene Rickard’s conceptualisation of visual sovereignty to also make sense of the simultaneous subversion and self-recognition that takes place in Belcourt’s artwork. In doing so, this paper furthers a critical dialogue surrounding the normativity of recognition policies and practices in Canada as well as the intersubjective or interpellative orientation of visual-cultural expressions of recognition.     

Oxygen and strontium isotope evidence for mobility in Roman Winchester

Artefacts and burial rites in the late Roman cemetery at Lankhills School, Winchester, southern England, were used by Clarke (1979) to distinguish between local Romano-British individuals and migrants thought to be from the Danube region, a suggestion tested through isotope analysis by Evans et al. (2006a,b). This paper reports strontium (⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr) and oxygen (δ¹⁸O) isotope data for tooth enamel sampled from a further 40 individuals from more recent excavations on the same site. Results suggest that up to a quarter of the sampled Lankhills individuals were incomers, with several individuals possibly originating from the Hungarian Basin and the Southern Mediterranean. However, there was no clear link between isotopic signature and archaeological origin attribution, suggesting that in many cases burial practice was dictated by factors other than ‘ethnicity’, such as kinship, marriage or cultural and political preferences.     

The Politics of Sources Meets the Practices of the Librarian: An Interview with Esther Chen**

[I] want to single out one phenomenon that could be called the ‘politics of sources’. It points to the extent to which the histories that both scientists and historians can write are artifacts of the available sources. The Rockefeller Foundation not only opened its archives very early on for historical work but also invested a lot in making the archives readily available for historical exploration. During the 1980s, many young historians took advantage of this opportunity. Thus, in a relatively early phase of the professional historiography of molecular biology, one could have gained the impression that the development of the new biology as a whole was a bio-politically directed enterprise of the Rockefeller Foundation sustained by the vision that social processes could ultimately be controlled by biological processes.     

Human guinea pigs? The history of the early oral contraceptive clinical trials

Abstract

Today it is estimated that over 100 million women worldwide have taken oral contraceptives since their first clinical trials in 1956. Despite their popularity, however, contraceptive pills have been under constant scrutiny for their safety since the time of their marketing. This paper considers the degree to which the pill was tested before it was introduced on to the market and challenges many assumptions that have been made about the use scientists made of women in its development. Examining the early testing of the pill, the paper makes clear that the success of the pill and its testing depended on the active co‐operation of the women who swallowed the tablet in its experimental stage. Far from being guinea‐pigs, women were thus active participants in the making of the pill.     

First records of Geinitziidae (Insecta: Grylloblattida) from the Upper Triassic of Argentina (Mendoza)

Lara, M.B. & Aristov, D., August 2016. First records of Geinitziidae (Insecta: Grylloblattida) from the Upper Triassic of Argentina (Mendoza). Alcheringa 41, xxx–xxx. ISSN 0311-5518

A new grylloblattid (Permoshurabia argentina sp. nov.: Geinitziidae) is described and illustrated from the Upper Triassic of Argentina. The material represents the first record of this family from Argentina and expands the geographic distribution of this group during the Triassic.

María Belén Lara [lara.maria.belen@live.com.ar], Area Paleontología (Centro de Ecología Aplicada del Litoral-Universidad Nacional del Nordeste-Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas), Casilla de Correo 128, 3400 Corrientes, Argentina; Danil Aristov [danil_aristov@mail.ru], Borissak Paleontological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Profsoyuznaya str. 123, Moscow, 117997, Russia.     

The Preservation and Interpretation of δ34S Values in Charred Archaeobotanical Remains

The measurement of sulphur isotope (δ³⁴S) values in charred plant remains has the potential to inform understanding of the spatial configuration and ecology of crop production. We investigated the effects of charring, manuring, oxidation and anaerobic soil conditions on modern cereal grain/pulse seed δ³⁴S values, and assessed the effect of chemical pre‐treatment on charred modern and archaeobotanical grain/seed δ³⁴S values. We used these results to interpret δ³⁴S values in archaeobotanical material from Neolithic Çatalhöyük. Our results suggest that δ³⁴S values can be reliably preserved in charred grain/seeds but are subject to influence by anaerobic soil conditions, the effect depending on the timing of flooding in relation to S assimilation.     

Power Plus Persuasion: The Anatomy of Kennedy’s Housing Order

We examine the influence of various political actors on the substance and timing of presidential orders. Specifically, we analyze President John F. Kennedy’s decision to issue E. O. 11063, which directed the federal bureaucracy to eliminate discrimination in the sale or lease of residential property overseen by the federal government. We show that this order did not result solely from Kennedy’s policy preferences; rather, it was a product of persuasion by several political actors who coaxed Kennedy to act. This reinforces previous findings that the president’s power of the pen is often conditioned by the informal political costs of unilateral executive action.