Obsidian from the Epipalaeolithic and Neolithic eastern Maghreb. A view from the Hergla context (Tunisia)

In the present paper, it is shown that in the Hergla area (eastern Tunisia), obsidian was present from the early to at least the late sixth millennium cal BC. The presence of cores indicates that obsidian knapping was at least partly carried out in situ. The origin of these obsidians was determined from their elemental composition, by comparison with those originating from western Mediterranean potential sources, including analyses of new samples from the nearby Pantelleria Island. All obsidians were measured following the same protocol, by particle induced X-ray emission or by scanning electron microscopy/energy dispersion spectrometry. All the Hergla obsidians were found to originate from the Balata dei Turchi sources of Pantelleria. A review of the present body of knowledge on eastern Maghreb suggests, in spite of the still very preliminary data available, that Pantelleria was almost its unique provider of obsidians from the Epipalaeolithic to and during the Neolithic. However, the relative importance of the two main Pantellerian sources of Balata dei Turchi and Lago di Venere as providers of obsidian to eastern Maghreb remains to be investigated.     

Public opinion and policy responsiveness: the case of same-sex marriage in Australia

This article examines congruence between public opinion and politicians’ positions on same-sex marriage in the Australian House of Representatives from 2012 to 2016. In contrast median voter theorem and other office-motivated frameworks, Australian federal politicians have largely ignored majority opinion, which has been supportive of same-sex marriage for a decade. Using a unique dataset (n?=?601,550) of voter preferences collected during the 2013 federal election, and collated Hansard and media data, we compare public opinion on same-sex marriage with politicians’ public positions. We find a status quo bias, suggesting the influence of special interest groups in this policy area. Yet, we also find parliamentarians are responsive to public opinion once it reaches a critical level, and that very low opposition to same-sex marriage in an electorate predicts policy support from its MP, which varies by party and over time.     

The Scientific Trajectory of the French School of Proximity: Interaction- and Institution-based Approaches to Regional Innovation Systems

The multi-faceted concept of proximity is often used nowadays in many theoretical and empirical analyses. It mainly originates in some French regional scientists' attempt, in the early 1990s, to develop new conceptual and methodological avenues with a view to the study of the industrial and spatial dynamics. The wide diffusion of the resulting research findings is explained by the fact that these scholars realized early on that it was in their interest to collectively structure their works through the setting-up of a research group. The present paper sets out to outline the scientific and institutional trajectories of the French group “Proximity Dynamics”, while underlining the progressive broadening of its scientific and institutional dimensions, as well as the main theoretical research fields these trajectories have permitted to investigate.     

Testing micro-regional variability in the Holocene shaping of high mountain cultural landscapes: a palaeoenvironmental case-study in the eastern Pyrenees

Previous research acknowledges the ancient and complex land-use history of European mountainous areas, which are characterised by a remarkable regional variability in terms of human practices and patterns of occupation during the Holocene. However, the combined palaeoenvironmental and archaeological study of highland human management at a micro-regional scale remains a largely unexplored research field, especially in the Pyrenees. A combined pollen, stomata, non-pollen palynomorphs (NPPs) and macrocharcoal study was carried out at three nearby alpine and subalpine peat basins from a relatively small territory (ca.1700 ha) at the Madriu valley (Andorra, eastern Pyrenees), following a fine spatial-resolution strategy. The purpose was to test the suitability of high altitudinal palaeoecological sequences when reconstructing past small-scale land-use variability. The palaeoecological results of those peat records are compared and further integrated with archaeological local data, and together underline the marked complexity of high mountain land-use system over the Holocene period. Main phases of micro-regional land-use and landscape variability can be distinguished from the middle Neolithic to the early Bronze Age and from the Roman Period to the Modern Era. Conversely, several phases of homogeneous landscape management are distinguishable during the early Neolithic, and from the late Bronze to the late Iron Age. Results drawn from this study show that landscape variability is not necessarily connected to topographic or climatic parameters, and underline the role of social, economical and cultural parameters in the land-use organisation and the landscape shaping of high mountain spaces since Prehistory.     

The Conservation and Degradation of Archaeological Soil Features in Flanders and Brussels: The example of Watermaal-Bosvoorde

Ten years ago, an extensive literature study on the conservation and degradation of soil features in Flanders was conducted. The outcome was a report discussing the state of preservation. The present contribution intends to synthesize the chief outcomes of that research and to present a case study where the theoretical knowledge and recommendations then put forward have been applied.     

Public Attitudes toward Official Bilingualism in Canada: Making Sense of Regional and Subregional Variation

ABSTRACT

Pierre Trudeau’s vision of Canada’s cultural policy was situated within a bilingual framework. Canada, so conceived, has “no official culture” and two official languages. Nearly 50 years later, debates regarding the effects and broader significance of this policy combination persist as illustrated by the recent debate about Supreme Court judges. Yet, Canadians’ attitudes about bilingualism have received relatively little scholarly attention. This paper probes the structure and recent evolution of public attitudes toward the general idea of official bilingualism using the Survey on Official Languages (2003) and the Canadian Election Studies (1997–2011). It goes on to investigate regional differences in public support for bilingual Supreme Court judges using a large-scale survey conducted by Vox Pop Labs in 2015 (n = 291, 577). The combination of these data sources offers new insights into the contextual and individual-level determinants of regional differences in public attitudes toward bilingualism policy in Canada.     

Is it time to start worrying more about growing regional inequalities in Canada?

Much has been written recently about the rise of within-country inequality and growing imbalances of regional fortunes in the United States and the European Union. In this paper, we apply a novel geo-visualization technique that combines local indicators of spatial association with directional statistics to a unique dataset in order to explore the spatial dimensions of regional income inequalities in Canada from 1981 to 2016. After describing a pattern of growing spatial divergence among regions, we briefly discuss the need for the federal government to explore new types of place-sensitive development policies.     

Religiosity or racism? The bases of opposition to religious accommodation in Quebec

Though Canada is internationally lauded for the success of its multiculturalism policies, debates about immigrant integration have arisen in recent years. These debates have turned on the extent to which religion should be accommodated in the public sphere. They have also been disproportionately concentrated in the French‐speaking province of Quebec. This paper asks whether this disproportionality is due to the Quebec population being particularly unfavourable to religious accommodation and, if so, whether this disfavour is grounded in racial antipathy toward newcomers or in the province's unique religious history. The findings show that while opposition to religious accommodation is higher in Quebec, and higher among francophones, it is rooted more in the low level of religiosity of the francophone population than in racial animus. These results emphasise the importance of correctly conceptualising distinctions between ethnocentric and culturally based sources of group conflict in multicultural settings such as Canada.     

Thermoluminescence dating of a Stillbay–Howiesons Poort sequence at Diepkloof Rock Shelter (Western Cape,South Africa)

New excavations have been undertaken at Diepkloof Rock Shelter (DRS; South Africa) since 1999. It is one of the very few sites where Howiesons Poort and Stillbay assemblages can be collected from the same archaeological sequence. These Middle Stone Age techno-complexes are particularly interesting for their affinities with the much younger Later Stone Age facies, and their association with evidence for symbolic behaviour. Establishing their chronology is therefore particularly important for the understanding of the apparition and the evolution of the so-called “modern” behaviours. Data already available suggest ages ranging from 55 to 80 ka for the Howiesons Poort and from 70 to 80 ka for the Stillbay techno-complexes in several South African sites. The thermoluminescence dating undertaken at DRS on 22 stone samples originating from the entire stratigraphic record indicates intervals starting 10–50 ka earlier for these techno-complexes in this site. Possible caveats in the dating process are examined but to the best of our current knowledge must be rejected.