Post-glacial environmental change and hunting-gathering societies of the southern Prairie Peninsula

Evidence from several disciplines supports the proposition that following the Wisconsinan and an initial but brief moist phase of the Holocene, there was a gradual drying trend in the mid-continent Prairie Peninsula that peaked about 7000 years ago, a pattern that was not reversed until about 4000 years ago. Except for minor perturbations, conditions during the past four millennia have essentially been similar to those of the present. Studies in palynology and geomorphology have shown that the climatic regimes of the early/mid Post-glacial had a marked influence on both the biota and landscape erosional patterns, especially along the margins of the Prairie Peninsula. Measurable changes in the landscape and attendant biota show a time-transgressive pattern of drought related phenomena recorded palaeo-ecologically from west to east.Few studies of archaeological sites in the Prairie Peninsula have examined the evidence in and around the sites themselves for data reflecting local environmental dynamics. In fact, earlier models proposed for explaining the evolution of food-procuring systems in eastern North America virtually ignored potential changes in the natural environment. This paper examines data from two archaeological sites along the prairie-forest border in Missouri that contain long cultural sequences. Evidence is presented that pronounced changes in the natural environment occurred and that these biophysical variables are indeed critical for understanding the evolution of food-procuring societies in the American Midwest.     

Visibility as concealment: Informal football matches and wealth disparities in rural Jamaica (Respond to this article at http://www.therai.org.uk/at/debate)

Every weekday evening men from Black River (a coastal Jamaican town) and the nearby communities of New Town, Logwood, and Spring Park play ‘pick‐up ball’ (informal football matches) together. Some of the players are wealthy and well educated and are respected in the communities. Others are unemployed, dependent upon relatives, wives, girlfriends, or cash‐in hand employment opportunities for subsistence. My presentation proceeds from the question: why do these groups play football together? I argue that men of higher socioeconomic status aim to counteract disparities in the economic sphere with competition in the social sphere. By visibly mixing and competing with men of different socioeconomic statuses, wealthier men aim to conceal these disparities. My work proceeds from an understanding of Jamaica as a country with significant and growing inequalities of wealth and class. By looking at the social lives of higher class men in Black River, I argue that these men aim to negotiate potentially volatile socioeconomic conditions through competition and ‘strategic socializing.’ In a sense, these men aim to conceal socioeconomic disparities by making themselves visible as individuals.