Wild(er)ness: Reconfiguring the Geographies of Wildlife

Amidst millennial talk of the 'end of nature' ( McKibben 1989 ), this paper examines the precarious geographies of 'wildlife' in rather less apocalyptic terms. Animal (and plant) species designated wild are placed categorically outside the ambit of 'human society', confined to inhabiting the margins and interstices of the social world. Yet, we contend, such animals have long been routinely imagined and organized within multiple circuits of social power, which (re)configure them in important ways. These social orderings of animal life confound the moral geographies of wilderness, which presuppose an easy coincidence between the species and spaces of a pristine nature. In this paper, we employ the fluid spatial vocabulary of topology to map a more volatile and relational conception of the fabrics of wildlife. Our arguments are worked through glimpses of two historically very different social orderings of 'wild' animals – those associated with the military vernacular of the gladiatorial games of Imperial Rome, and the scientific vernacular of endangered species listing and conservation under CITES (the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species). These 'foldings' of wildlife in distant time/space aim to disrupt the linear historical narratives of 'civilization' and 'evolution', which consign wildlife to marginal spaces with a teleological destiny of erasure.     

Past human exploitation of birds on the Isle of Man

This paper makes comparisons between various sources—historical, ethnographic and archaeological—that relate to birds on the Isle of Man, in order to give a picture of the former uses of birds by the Manx people. Written references suggest that seabirds in particular were an important source of the essentials of life, and this is reinforced by recent archaeological evidence. The bird bones discussed are from excavations at St Patrick's Island off the west coast and Castle Rushen, Castletown. Manx Shearwaters Puffinus puffinus were present in greater numbers than they are now, and two fragments of the now extinct great auk Pinguinis impennis were identified, confirming the presence of this species on the Isle of Man. The evidence points to over-harvesting of the shearwaters and members of the auk family. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Application of X-ray fluorescence imaging to ceramics from the American Southwest

We have used synchrotron-based X-ray fluorescence imaging (XRFI) to examine sherds of painted ceramics from prehistoric cultures of the American Southwest. These sherds are very well suited to XRFI analysis. Paints can generally be detected and distinguished by the fluorescence intensities of their constituent elements. Spatial maps of element distributions yield the spatial distribution of pigments. Pigments can be distinguished that are (or have become) visually similar; layers that have been obscured by overpainting can be examined; and pigment residues can be distinguished from surface contaminants deposited after painting and firing. As a result, XRFI allows the painted motifs to be clarified and hidden features to be revealed. Furthermore, the very rapid scanning and high sensitivity elemental detection possible with synchrotron-based XRFI facilitate measurements on large collections of sherds, allowing an integrative rather than anecdotal analysis.