A Comparison of Health between Upland and Coastal Late Prehistoric Agriculturists from the Southeast USA

During the late prehistoric period (ad 1250–1550) in the southeast USA, when native populations transitioned to living in permanent, nucleated settlements practicing maize agriculture, most experienced a decline in health. However, some research shows that not all groups experienced the decline in the same way as there were regional differences in dental caries and iron deficiency anaemia frequencies and patterns of physical activity. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to determine if regional differences in health also existed between late prehistoric upland and coastal inhabitants from one part of the southeastern USA. Pathological lesion frequencies were calculated for 441 individuals from 23 upland archaeological sites and compared with previously published data for 340 individuals from 11 coastal sites. Significant differences in lesion frequencies were observed between upland and coastal groups. For example, upland adult men have more carious teeth among the maxillary first incisors, maxillary second molars, mandibular canines, and mandibular second molars. For women, greater caries frequencies are found among the maxillary first and third molars, mandibular first incisors, and mandibular third premolars. Upland children show higher percentages of caries for 14 tooth classes. Coastal juveniles have a greater frequency of porotic hyperostosis, and more of them exhibit an enamel hypoplasia. Periosteal lesion frequency is greater for the coastal group at the humerus, radius, femur, and tibia. Lesions indicative of degenerative joint disease are more often found on the thoracic spinal segment, sacrum and shoulder of upland men with upland women having more lesions at the cervical, thoracic, and lumbar spinal segments, the sacrum, and the shoulder. Taken together, these results show that adults from the upland region consumed more maize and lived a more physically demanding life while coastal adults struggled more with infection. Among children, more coastal inhabitants were anaemic and more of the experienced significant growth disturbances. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Bullock Report on Industrial Democracy and the Post-War Consensus

The post-war settlement among the policy elite is central to much historical literature. This article considers the rise and fall of the idea of ‘industrial democracy’, and its relationship to this settlement. The elite failed to respond coherently to claims for workplace democracy. The notion that politicians could work with ‘the unions’ and ‘industry’ was shown to be deficient. The unions contained numerous views, many hostile to industrial democracy in the form proposed by Bullock and the TUC. Industry was almost uniformly antagonistic. The notion of consensus ostensibly underpinned the attempts of Labour and Conservative politicians to progress this issue. In truth, this was a curious approach. The debate over Bullock was, at root, an argument over whether the owners of capital should cede some of their power in favour of organised labour. There was never likely to be agreement on this. The inconclusive debate over Bullock ultimately showed how fragile the consensus was. The political elite could not forever smooth over underlying disagreements between capital and labour, or between groups of workers with differing interests.     

Dating the Domestic Ceramics and Pipe Smoking Related Artifacts from Casselden Place, Melbourne, Australia

This paper compares the dates of manufacture obtained for the domestic ceramic and pipe smoking related artifact assemblages from Casselden Place, Melbourne. It has previously been argued that ceramic items, because of their potentially long use-lives, may be deposited many years after their date of manufacture and purchase. This is in contrast to pipe smoking related items, which tend to have very short use-lives. However, the results presented here demonstrate that there is no significant evidence for a time lag between the date of manufacture of the ceramic items and their incorporation into the archaeological record at Casselden Place.     

Who Should Run Elections in the United States?

Much has been said since the 2000 presidential election regarding the administration of elections in the United States, particularly about how election administrators are selected and to whom they are responsive. Unfortunately, there has been little research on the different administrative structures that are possible and the preferences of Americans regarding these different administrative options. In this article we present the results from a national survey of American adults in which we asked them their preference for whether elections should be run by partisan or nonpartisan officials, whether the officials should be elected or appointed, and whether the administration of elections should be by a single unitary executive or by an election board. In addition to eliciting the basic preferences of Americans about these administrative choices, we also undertake a deeper analysis of these data to determine the underlying patterns in support for the different administrative options.