Black Death in the rural cemetery of Saint-Laurent-de-la-Cabrerisse Aude-Languedoc,southern France, 14th century: immunological evidence

An excavation carried out in 2007 in Saint-Laurent-de-la-Cabrerisse (Aude-Languedoc, southern France), revealed a medieval rural cemetery used during the 8th–14th centuries. One hundred and forty nine graves were identified. Amongst those, three burials radiocarbon dated to the 14th century contained the remains of several individuals. No paleotraumatological evidences of violence due to warfare or to a civil massacre were identified in the exhumed skeletons. Therefore, we hypothesized that the simultaneous inhumations could have occurred during the “Black Death” outbreak or during one of its resurgences. A rapid diagnostic test for the detection of Yersinia pestis F1 antigen was applied to the nine putative plague victims to authenticate the cause of their death. Seven of the nine individuals tested from the three graves were positive to Y. pestis F1 antigen. We additionally tested fourteen skeletons from single graves archaeologically dated to the 13th–14th centuries. Four of them were positive to Y. pestis F1 antigen, thus showing a higher mortality rate due to plague than originally expected. The Saint-Laurent-de-la-Cabrerisse plague victims are the oldest samples from which Y. pestis F1 antigen has been, hitherto, identified. Few rural French cemetery containing plague victims have previously been identified and amongst them, only one dates to the 14th century. In the present report, we provide suggestive evidence of a second rural cemetery from southern France where victims of Y. pestis infection were buried. Our findings provide new information about the management of the plagued corpses during the “Black Death” in small rural communities.     

Changing views of women in society, 1975

Ernestine Friedl. Women and Men: An Anthropologist's View. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1975. xi + 148 pp. Illustrations, map, references, and relevant case studies. $3.50 (paper).

M. Kay Martin and Barbara Voorhies. The Female of the Species. New York and London: Columbia University Press, 1975. x + 432 pp. Tables, figures, illustrations, references, and index. $15.00 (cloth), $6.50 (paper).

Evelyn Reed. Woman's Evolution: From Matriarchal Clan to Patriarchal Family. New York: Pathfinder Press, 1975. xviii + 491 pp. Glossary, Bibliography, and index. $15. (cloth), $4.95 (paper).     

Informal strategies of unemployment relief in Greek cities: The relevance of family,locality and housing

Unemployment in Greece hit the cities following the deindustrialization process of the 1970s. Despite governmental centralization, a thin institutional apparatus shifted the emphasis for unemployment relief and social integration to local agents and the family. This, along with difficulties of measuring a large hidden economy, makes the analysis of national trends and policies inadequate for understanding structural aspects. Case studies of two poor localities on the periphery of Athens (Perama) and Salonica (Sykies) reveal the importance of housing and urban renewal initiatives besides employment‐, skill‐ and production‐oriented policies. Housing (usually self‐built and often illegal) is crucial in the production circuit (as well as reproduction). It is related to both family strategies for unemployment relief, based on the home, and with the informal economy. The house and community infrastructure become forces of production in areas where putting‐out, subcontracting and home‐working are prevalent. The neglect of the housing sector in European social policy is therefore criticized here.     

Plague immunodetection in remains of religious exhumed from burial sites in central France

The skeletons of four Benedictine nuns and two priests were exhumed from two burial sites in central France. The corpses were dated to the 16th– 18th centuries (archaeological dating).