The 2012 acid mine drainage (AMD) crisis in Carolina's municipal water supply

ABSTRACT

There are growing concerns in South Africa about the threat that acid mine drainage (AMD) poses to local natural water resources in many of the country's mining areas. Since the beginning of the 21^st century, the toxic water has been responsible for pollution in parts of the country. Government and operators in the country's water sector have actively been working in recent years at addressing the problem. This article deals with a contemporary history of an AMD crisis in the coalmining town of Carolina, in the Mpumalanga Province of South Africa, and explains how the matter was eventually resolved. The discourse focuses on how people of Carolina responded to the contamination of the municipality's water supply system and eventually chose to follow the path of active protest. The water crisis even made a detour to the high court, with a number of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) actively supporting the cause of local residents. Although by September 2012 the town's water supply was restored, the community remained distrustful of the local authority's ability to secure a consistent supply of good quality water. The authorities took some measures to restore trust. People had been traumatised and sound relations had to be restored in the aftermath of the crisis. The Carolina crisis of 2012 is contemplated from the perspective of the current threat that AMD poses to South Africa's finite water resources and the danger of mining in sensitive areas.     

Book Reviews

Abstract

One of the few maps made by the indigenous population of the Americas and dating from the early eighteenth century to have survived, either in original or copied form, is the subject of this article. The map, on deerskin, was given to the new governor of South Carolina, Francis Nicholson, by an unknown Native American. Entitled A Map Describing the Situation of the Several Nations of Indians between South Carolina and the Massissipi River, it has generally been attributed to the Catawba nation. After situating the map in its historical period and detailing the claims for a Catawba origin, these claims are refuted and evidence supplied for a Cherokee origin.     

Two cases of facial involvement in probable treponemal infection from late prehistoric coastal North Carolina

This paper describes two late prehistoric burials from coastal North Carolina with cranial and postcranial lesions characteristic of treponemal infection. Each case exhibits facial lesions consistent with clinical reports of treponemal infection, but which have not previously been documented in these populations. The suite of facial lesions in one case and a mandibular lesion in the other serve to illustrate the variability inherent in treponemal infections. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Immigrant businesses,place-making,and community development: a case from an emerging immigrant gateway

Immigrant businesses have become an increasingly important component in the US economy. However, very few studies have systematically examined the role of immigrant businesses in community development, except for some cases in established immigrant gateways such as New York and Miami. In this study, we explore how immigrant businesses are shaping physical, cultural, social, economic, and political landscapes in their local communities in the emerging immigrant gateway of Charlotte, North Carolina. Focusing on the case of a multiethnic retail corridor, we find that, as active place-makers, immigrant businesses have transformed deteriorating and abandoned street fronts into vibrant and well-frequented urban environments conducive for further development. Through a systematic approach to understanding the place-making process of immigrant businesses, findings from this study call for more in-depth integration of immigrant and ethnic economies in local policies and planning strategies for neighborhood revitalization. These findings are particularly pertinent in the context of the continuous ethnic diversification of our neighborhoods and cities.     

'Ruling Theories Linger': Questioning the Identity of the Beaufort Inlet Shipwreck

From 1996 investigators of the Beaufort Inlet shipwreck, off North Carolina, USA, have suggested that the remains are those of the Queen Anne's Revenge , flagship of the pirate Blackbeard. Analysis of the published material, however, indicates that no concrete evidence has yet been found to support this identification and, moreover, shows a strong tendency towards Ruling Theory, whereby researchers seem to shape evidence to fit a pre-conceived identification. This article uses the Beaufort Inlet shipwreck as a case study in the dangers of Ruling Theory and how it can compromise scholarly objectivity, and thwart the generation of useful research questions. It also seeks to demonstrate the benefits of a clear, objective research design for project investigation and management.
© 2005 The Nautical Archaeology Society     

Mortuary practices, gender ideology, and the Cherokee town at the Coweeta Creek site

During the 18th century A.D., leadership roles within Cherokee towns in the southern Appalachians were closely tied to gender distinctions between women and men. This paper examines mortuary patterns from the Coweeta Creek site, located in the upper Little Tennessee Valley in southwestern North Carolina, with an interest in gender ideology and leadership roles within the local Cherokee community from the 15th through 18th centuries A.D. During the 1400s, there were several houses at the site, and some burials were placed within those structures. During the 1600s, there developed a more formal layout of public and domestic architecture at the site, with many burials still placed inside or beside structures. Mortuary data from the site indicate the presence of distinct and parallel paths to status and prestige for men and women in this community. They also demonstrate an emphasis on male roles and statuses in the years following European contact in the Southeast.     

The role of black Barbudans in the establishment of open-range cattle herding in the colonial Caribbean and South Carolina

Some significant problems remain in understanding the establishment of open-range cattle herding in the Caribbean and North America, especially regarding the role of blacks in that process. Research to date has identified the Greater Antilles, especially Spanish Cuba and British Jamaica, as the sole Caribbean sources of settlers who established the herding systems of, respectively, Mexico and South Carolina. Yet an open-range cattle herding system also occurred in the British Lesser Antilles, which provided many of the settlers for the South Carolina colony. Archival and field research in Antigua and Barbuda provide the basis for comprehensive reconstruction of that system's material culture and herding ecology, demonstration of the role of blacks in its operation, and comparison with other relevant systems to consider whether the British Lesser Antilles might also have been involved in the process through which open-range cattle herders established themselves in South Carolina during the late seventeenth century.     

Animal Use and the Urban Landscape in Colonial Charleston, South Carolina, USA

The quantity and variety of animals contributing to foodways and landscapes are often overlooked in studies of urban colonial experiences. In colonial Charleston, South Carolina (USA), wild and domestic animals contributed to a unique lowcountry cuisine. Some of these animals lived in the city where their activities shaped, and were shaped by, the urban landscape. Many aspects of the environment were designed to accommodate and restrict these animals. Excavations at two eighteenth-century sites provide more detailed views of the changing role of animals in the lowcountry foodways and landscape from 1720 into the 1800s.     

“From the cradle to the grave”: Jim Williams,black manhood,and militia activism in Reconstruction South Carolina

The life of Jim Williams, an African American militia captain hanged by the Ku Klux Klan in South Carolina in 1871, illuminates the history of martial black manhood during Reconstruction. Service in state militias seemed to afford black men the opportunity to assert a new kind of manhood, grounded in a desire to defend black communities and exercise political rights gained after emancipation. But conservative white southerners met these assertions of black manhood with a campaign of vigilantism. Racist violence by conservative white southerners worked to reverse the support militias had received from white Republicans, and the militias were disbanded and blamed for the very violence they suffered. This article explores Williams’s story, analyzes both officers and troops of black militia companies in the South Carolina upcountry, and charts how real and rhetorical violence silenced the militias’ assertions of a new form of black manhood and freedom.     

Automated mound detection using lidar and object-based image analysis in Beaufort County,South Carolina

The study of precontact anthropogenic mounded features—earthen mounds, shell heaps, and shell rings—in the American Southeast is stymied by the spotty distribution of systematic surveys across the region. Many extant, yet unidentified, archaeological mound features continue to evade detection due to the heavily forested canopies that occupy large areas of the region, making pedestrian surveys difficult and preventing aerial observation. Object-based image analysis (OBIA) is a tool for analyzing light and radar (lidar) data and offers an inexpensive opportunity to address this challenge. Using publicly available lidar data from Beaufort County, South Carolina, and an OBIA approach that incorporates morphometric classification and statistical template matching, we systematically identify over 160 previously undetected mound features. This result improves our overall knowledge of settlement patterns by providing systematic knowledge about past landscapes.