Terminal Pleistocene and Holocene hunters and gatherers in the eastern Sudan

Excavations by the joint University of Khartoum/Southern Methodist University Butana Project in the area just north of Khashm el Girba on the upper Atbara River have uncovered a series of preceramic and early ceramic occupations by hunters and gatherers which date fromca 10,000 bp toca 6200 bp. The earlier sites show no direct relations with those of similar age in the northern Sudan, while the later, early ceramic sites show only minor similarities with contemporary occurrences in the central Nile Valley. Thus, it appears that the upper Atbara River Valley played no role in the development of the Khartoum Mesolithic and that Nilotic influences were late reaching the eastern Sudan.

---

Résumé Des fouilles entreprises par le projet Butana dirigé en commun par l'université de Khartoum et le Southern Methodist University dans la région juste au nord de Khashm el Girba sur le cours supérieur de l'Atbara, ont découvert une série d'occupations précéramiques et céramiques anciennes de chasseurs-cueilleurs, qui datent deca 10,000 bp àca 6200 bp. Les gisements les plus anciens ne semblent pas avoir eu de relations directes avec ceux de la même période dans le nord du Soudan, tandis que les gisements plus tardifs à céramiques ne montrent que de petites analogies avec des occupations contemporaines dans la vallée centrale du Nil. Il semble donc que la haute vallée de l'Atbara n'a joué aucun rôle dans le développement du Mésolithique de Khartoum et que des influences nilotiques n'atteignirent que bien plus tard le Soudan oriental.

     

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.     

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.     

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.     

Pop Anthropology,With Little Anthropology or Pop

Unlike other scientific fields, anthropology popularizations are as likely as not to be written by scientists who are not themselves experts in the subject. This is because the subject, the scientific knowledge of our origin and patterns of bio-cultural diversity—or more broadly, who we are and where we come from—is the source of our culturally authoritative origin myths, and consequently of broad general interest in and of itself. But anthropology popularizations come with the responsibility not only to get the facts and theory correct, but as well to understand the history and embedded politics in the stories themselves.     

Italy in the Aftermath of the First World War

France and Italy at the Paris Peace Conference