Isenya: état des recherches sur un nouveau site acheuléen d'Afrique orientale

Résumé Isenya est le premier site acheuléen fouillé sur les hauts plateaux du Kenya. Sa richesse en vestiges lithiques et fauniques en fait dès maintenant un gisement important pour la connaissance des hominidés du Pléistocène moyen. Isenya est inclus dans un contexte sédimentaire fluviatile, indiquant que les hommes préhistoriques se sont installés sur une barre sableuse, le long d'une rivière qui était alors peut-être pérenne. La convergence des informations géologiques et archéologiques permet d'expliquer la mise en place des vestiges, la positionin situ de plusieurs niveaux d'occupation superposés, le faible degré de perturbation qu'ils ont subi, et l'origine essentiellement anthropique des associations os/pierres. L'industrie lithique est caractérisée par une grande abondance de bifaces et de hachereaux dont les proportions varient dans le temps. Une première analyse de l'ensemble apporte d'ores et déjà des indications sur les comportements techniques: les chaînes opératoires sont décryptées, depuis l'acquisition des matériaux jusqu'à l'obtention des outils. La faune associée à cet outillage est dominée par des animaux de savane ouverte (Alcelaphini etAntilopini). Son étude détaillée mettra en évidence les stratégies d'acquisition du gibier et son mode de consommation. Attirés, entre autres raisons, par la proximité de l'eau et des affleurements de phonolite, source principale de matière première pour l'outillage, les hominidés ont occupé cet enfroit de façon répétée dans un court laps de temps, selon une périodicité à rapprocher sans doute des comportements de subsistance.

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Isenya is the first Acheulian site excavated in the Eastern Highlands of Kenya. Very rich lithic and faunal remains in a fluviatile sedimentary context indicate hominid activity on a sandy bar next to a river, which was perhaps perennial. Microstratigraphy and archaeological data permit reconstruction of the processes by which the remains were deposited. Severalin situ occupation layers show only a slight degree of perturbation. The bone assemblage is of anthropic origin, and the lithic industry is characterized by an abundance of bifacial pieces, level VI being particularly rich in cleavers. From the analysis of the lithic industry we can obtain some idea of hominid technological behaviour, most notably the operational chains of tool production from the procurement of raw materials to the knapping sequences. The fauna associated with the lithic materials is dominated by animals of the open savanna (Alcelaphini andAntilopini); and its detailed study will allow us to specify the strategies used in the procurement of game and its subsequent consumption. Without doubt, the reasons for hominid occupation at this particular site will be impossible to explain fully. However, choice of this location, where evidence for several different activities has been uncovered, should be considered in terms of the proximity both of water and of outcrops of phonolite, the principal raw material for tool-making. Repeated occupation by hominids over a short time may, perhaps, correspond to the periodicity of their subsistence behaviour.

     

A forgotten plague

Dysentery, or rödsot, as the disease was previously known in Sweden, continues to be a major scourge in developing countries. However, the disease has almost disappeared in the West. Very different circumstances prevailed before infectious diseases declined as some of the major causes of death during the 19th century. In that era, 10,000 people could die of dysentery in a single year in Sweden. The demographic consequences of dysentery in Sweden and the causes of the disease and its disappearance are discussed in this article. It is shown here that despite the devastating effects of dysentery epidemics, most government actions were targeted at cholera. Considerable regional and local differences are revealed as the disease is mapped over Sweden. Clusters of high mortality formed, and even in hard-hit Jönköping County some parishes were almost never affected. It becomes apparent that the outbreaks have been the result of complex interactions between different variables and have led to widespread disease of uneven and often epidemic proportions.

For the statistical analyses the digitized source material of the Demographic Data Base (DDB) at Umeå University has been used, containing statistical demographic data gathered from parishes from all over Sweden. Other sources drawn upon include published statistical data, reports from district medical officers, newspapers, parish registers, and maps.     

Exploring children's foodscapes

In this article, we discuss children's becoming as food consumers in the intersection of various foodscapes. We draw from a project, Children as co-researchers of foodscapes, where we have been working with children as co-researchers, using basically ethnographic methods, and as co-designers in a collaborative design effort. This article focuses on the findings from a theoretically inspired perspective, using the concept of foodscapes. These are food-related structures of different kinds, which evolve as the child explores them and where children as food consumers are generated. In this article, we highlight the scapes of taste, routines, people, things, commerce, child (as opposed to adult) and health and give brief accounts of the way the children related to them. Finally, we turn to the benefits of working with foodscapes for a better understanding of children's becoming as food consumers in the intersection of various foodscapes. This article is based on data gathered by the children, but also on our fieldwork notes and observations following the children in their foodscapes.     

A Future for Archaeology: In Defense of an Intellectually Engaged,Collaborative and Confident Archaeology

Through a critical review of inter- and transdisciplinarity in archaeology, this paper examines the power relationships within archaeology with regards to collaborators within and beyond the academy. By making a case for an archaeology that openly collaborates across disciplines and knowledge systems, but also more firmly articulates itself and its value, the paper makes a case for an engaged and problematising archaeology for the future.     

Do electoral district size and diversity affect legislative behaviour?

This paper analyses how the size and socio-economic diversity of their electorate affect parliamentarians’ legislative behaviour. We study the Australian senate, which wields considerable legislative influence and is marked by large differences in the size and socio-economic makeup of the districts that senators represent. We demonstrate that as the size of their district increases, senators ask more questions and introduce more bills and amendments. By contrast, senators become less active as the diversity of their electoral district increases. The paper thus establishes that size and diversity of electorates have significant effects on legislative behaviour.     

Contested Sources of Authority: Re‐claiming State Sovereignty by Formalizing Traditional Authority in Mozambique

In Mozambique, the current legal framework institutionalizes a rural–urban differentiation of local governance, allowing for elected representation in thirty‐three urban settings and the recognition of ‘community authorities’ in rural areas. This article deals with the latter by exploring the implementation of Decree 15/2000, which is the first legislation in post‐colonial Mozambique to formalize ‘traditional authority’. Views of traditional authority as either a ‘genuine’ African form of authority legitimized by traditional beliefs and practices, or as a form of power ‘corrupted’ by colonial rule, are inadequate for understanding the current situation. In formerly war‐torn Sussundenga District, kin‐based authorities drew on elements from ‘traditional’ and ‘state‐administrative’ domains of authority in order to be recognized. Varied definitions of tradition came to justify leadership, but the content on which legitimization was based defies any generalized Weberian dichotomy between traditional and modern/state types of office. Different sources of legitimacy sometimes foregrounded administrative needs and at other times maintained what became defined as traditional.     

ACCOUNTING FOR LOCAL SPATIAL HETEROGENEITIES IN HOUSING MARKET STUDIES

We adopt a novel method to deal with omitted spatial heterogeneities in hedonic house price analysis. A Gaussian variant of the conditional autoregressive (CAR) model is used to study the impact of spatial effects. In a general linear modeling framework, we include zone‐specific random effects that are allowed to interact spatially with neighboring zones. The results demonstrate that this estimator accounts for missing spatial information, producing more reliable results on estimated spatially related coefficients. The CAR model is benchmarked against a fixed effects model. Socioeconomic neighborhood characteristics are found to have only modest impact on spatial variation in housing prices.     

Comments on Charlotte Damm (2005): Archaeology,Ethnohistory and Oral Traditions: Approaches to the Indigenous Past. Norwegian Archaeological Review 38, 73–87.

Grave finds from the late Iron Age in the district of Sogn form the point of departure in this essay. Burial customs are regarded as conditioned by the society of the living in the sense that elements in the memorials built (or not) and rites performed at the burial are assumed to symbolize social relations—roles and ranks.

It is attempted to find out how these ranks are divided between men and women and why, and tentatively, what implications this division has for our general interpretation of the society in question.