Patterns of Faunal Utilization and Sociopolitical Organization at the Mississippian Period Kincaid Mounds Site

Archaeologists have debated the degree of complexity at Mississippian period polities with some arguing that they were highly stratified and centralized and others arguing that they were politically decentralized. Faunal analyses from the Cahokia Mounds and Moundville polities have been used to suggest that there were significant differences in the foodways of elite and nonelite peoples and that deer remains were part of redistributive economies. In this article, I discuss the distribution of faunal remains from five archaeological contexts at the Kincaid Mounds site in southern Illinois. In particular, I explore species diversity and the distribution of deer body parts using utility indices and anatomical units and compare these results to Cahokia Mounds and other Mississippian period villages in southern Illinois. The distribution of taxa and deer elements from both the mound- and nonmound-related contexts at Kincaid follows patterns of possible elite consumption at Cahokia and restricted use of rare species.     

Scandal: Olivia Pope,Pope Francis,and Catholic Social Thought

Millions of viewers tune in to watch ABC's Scandal where political corruption, sexual infidelity, secret lives, and hidden crimes abound. What is it that makes something scandalous? In popular culture, scandal involves something morally or legally wrong coupled with public outrage. In contrast, as a theological category scandal is that which impedes the community's relationship with God. Pope Francis identifies poverty as just such a scandal damaging our relationship with God and each other. Examining scandal in popular culture and the media along with Catholic social thought, this article identifies three types of scandal: hypocrisy, impurity, and dehumanization. Ultimately, the theology of scandal can direct us away from the salacious towards addressing scandals of dehumanization.     

Mapping of subsurface shell midden components through percussion coring: examples from the Dundas Islands

Following earlier examples of mapping the subsurface of shell bearing sites using augering, we employ percussion coring to identify early Holocene shell midden components at two types of sites on the Northwest Coast of North America. We describe a method for mapping subsurface components at shell bearing sites including basal deposits, paleosols and transitions between distinct cultural components. Our research was undertaken for the purpose of identifying early Holocene shell middens above the modern shore, and as components below large shell midden villages. Our results augment the developmental trajectory of shell middens on the Northwest Coast by suggesting that pre-5000 BP forms of these sites may be more common than previously thought. In light of these results, we argue that the Northwest Coast cultural historical sequence, which locates an increase in the number and rate of accumulation of shell middens beginning 5000 years ago, to be premature. However, there are insufficient data from shell middens in the early Holocene, a sampling problem that the percussion coring methods described here can address.     

‘Artists are a tool for gentrification’: maintaining artists and creative production in arts districts

This study investigates the relationship between arts-themed development and the strategies used by neighborhood stakeholders, including artists and other marginalized populations, to maintain their place in gentrifying arts and cultural districts. Using a case study of a state-sanctioned Arts & Entertainment District in Baltimore, MD (U.S.A.), I find that the organizations that are ‘thoughtful’ in their development actively seek to maintain the production of arts and the residency of artists in the neighborhood into perpetuity. At the same time, the influx of arts-themed development helps raise property values and spurs re-colonization of the neighborhood’s large industrial buildings, making it difficult for artists to find legal, affordable live/work spaces in the district. As illegal DIY artists’ spaces are increasingly scrutinized by city inspectors, artists and other marginalized populations lose territory in the district and feel that they are being used for capital interests. This paper evaluates arts-themed development and public–private partnerships as a strategy for maintaining artists in revitalizing neighborhoods and considers the possibilities for a more inclusive arts district through political and community engagement.     

Notes from County Correspondents.

In 1503, the canons of Ripon Minster initiated a building campaign to replace the church’s nave. Through a careful study of the documentary evidence, including sources that have not previously been considered, this article investigates how Ripon’s clergy organised and funded the project. It offers a more precise chronology of the works and an assessment of their impact on the use of the church by its parishioners. The article also considers the clergy’s motives for rebuilding, proving that the renovation was not a reaction to the old nave’s deterioration so much as an initiative to create a grander architectural setting for processions and more space for burial within the church.     

Island Despotism: Trinidad,the British Imperial Constitution and Global Legal Order

Narratives of the history of international law in the early and middle decades of the nineteenth century have emphasised the role of global humanitarian movements in establishing international norms and institutions. The abolition of the slave trade and the amelioration of slavery feature prominently in this account as reform movements that supposedly laid the groundwork for human rights law. Using controversy about the constitution of the island of Trinidad and the excesses of its first governor, Thomas Picton, as a case study, we argue instead that attempts to reform slavery formed part of a wider British effort to construct a coherent imperial legal system, a project that corresponded to a different, and at the time more powerful vision of global order. As experiment and anti-model, Trinidad’s troubles provided critics with an advertisement for the necessity of robust imperial legal power in new and old colonies. Such a call for imperial oversight of colonial legal orders formed the basis of an empire-wide push to reorder the British world.