A metric study of three types of artificial cranial modification from north‐central Peru

Artificial cranial modification (ACM) involves the alteration of cranial vault shape by cultural means, and is performed during infancy while the cranial bones remain soft and malleable. The direction of normal cranial growth is altered through the application of external forces. In this study, three types of ACM from north‐central Peru (posterior flattening, bilobed and circumferential) were analysed using standard craniometric techniques. The aim was to determine the effects of these forms of ACM on craniofacial morphology, and the extent to which different types of ACM could be distinguished from one another and unmodified crania on the basis of these measurements. Significant differences between artificially modified and unmodified crania, and between different types of ACM, were demonstrated in cranial vault shape for all types. Significant differences in facial morphology were found only in the bilobed group compared with the unmodified crania. Canonical variates analysis (discriminant analysis) confirmed that major differences between modification types and unmodified crania were in measurements and angles of the cranial vault. While the results show some similarities to previous studies, they add to the variability in the patterns and extent of differences documented to date. It is suggested, based on these results and visual observations, that interpopulation variation in ACM within major modification categories may explain some of the variability in results between studies, an explanation which has previously received insufficient recognition but which remains to be tested since varied methodology between studies may also be a contributory factor. While previous studies have often sought to generalise about the effects of ACM, the examination of the differences between populations even within major ACM categories may offer new insight into cultural variation in modification techniques between populations and the nature of craniofacial development. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An oasis in a watery desert? Discourses on an industrial ecosystem in the Gulf of Mexico Rigs‐to‐Reefs program

This article explores how in the years after 1980 a spectrum of historical actors came to see petroleum platforms in the Gulf of Mexico as a necessary part of the Gulf ecosystem and how such views affected platform removal policies. Through a discourse analysis of the Rigs‐to‐Reefs program, in which old offshore petroleum facilities were converted into artificial reefs, this article examines how actors presented to the public their notions of the relationship of the Gulf ecosystem with technological offshore structures. Through this case we see how ideas of technology and nature were mutually constructed via discourses and what affect that had on policies.     

当代科技的特点及其对经济发展的影响

科学技术已渗透到我们生活的各个领域,当代科技的产生和发展正在影响着整个世界的经济格局。落后国家要在当代的科技发展中占有一席之地,只有了解当代科技的特征,选择适合自身特点的技术领域,通过加大技术创新的力度,才能在新的世界经济格局中寻找到立足之地。     

Narratives and expert information in agenda-setting: Experimental evidence on state legislator engagement with artificial intelligence policy

Are narratives as influential in gaining the attention of policymakers as expert information, including for complex, technical policy domains such as artificial intelligence (AI) policy? This pre-registered study uses a field experiment to evaluate legislator responsiveness to policy entrepreneur outreach. In partnership with a leading AI think tank, we send more than 7300 U.S. state legislative offices emails about AI policy containing an influence strategy (providing a narrative, expert information, or the organization's background), along with a prominent issue frame about AI (emphasizing technological competition or ethical implications). To assess engagement, we measure link clicks to further resources and webinar registration and attendance. Although AI policy is a highly technical domain, we find that narratives are just as effective as expert information in engaging legislators. Compared to control, expert information and narratives led to 28 and 34 percent increases in policymaker engagement, respectively. Furthermore, higher legislature professionalism and lower state-level prior AI experience are associated with greater engagement with both narratives and expert information. Finally, we find that policymakers are equally engaged by an ethical framing of AI policy as they are with an economic one. The findings advance efforts to bridge scholarship on policy narratives, policy entrepreneurship, and agenda-setting.     

POTENTIAL HISTORY: READING ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE FROM INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGES*

Until the beginning of the twentieth century, history, as a core concept of the political project of modernity, was highly concerned with the future. The many crimes, genocides, and wars perpetuated in the name of historical progress eventually caused unavoidable fractures in the way Western philosophies of history have understood change over time, leading to a depoliticization of the future and a greater emphasis on matters of the present. However, the main claim of the “Historical Futures” project is that the future has not completely disappeared from the focus of historical thinking, and some modalities of the future that have been brought to the attention of historical thought relate to a more-than-human reality. This article aims to confront the prospects of a technological singularity through the eyes of peoples who already live in a world of more-than-human agency. The aim of this confrontation is to create not just an alternative way to think about the future but a stance from which we can explore ways to inhabit and therefore repoliticize historical futures. This article contains a comparative study that has been designed to challenge our technologized imaginations of the future and, at the same time, to infuse the theoretical experiment with contingent historical experiences. Could we consider artificial intelligence as a new historical subject? What about as an agent in a “more-than-human” history? To what extent can we read this new condition through ancient Amerindian notions of time? Traditionally, the relationship between Western anthropocentrism and Amerindian anthropomorphism has been framed in terms of an opposition. We intend to prefigure a less hierarchical and more horizontal relation between systems of thought, one devoid of a fixed center or parameter of reference. Granting the same degree of intellectual dignity to the works of Google engineers and the views of Amazonian shamans, we nevertheless foster an intercultural dialogue (between these two “traditions of reasoning”) about a future in which history can become more-than-human. We introduce potential history as the framework not only to conceptualize Amerindian experiences of time but also to start building an intercultural dialogue that is designed to discuss AI as a historical subject.     

Sleepwalking through History: Medicine,Arts, and Courts of Law

Somnambulism, or sleepwalking, has always been of interest to theologians, writers, philosophers, physicians, and others fascinated by unusual behaviors. This parasomnia, which was defined less precisely in the past than it is today, has long been featured in medical dissertations and books of medicine. Further, Shakespeare, Bellini, and Brown, among others, incorporated it into their plays, operas, and novels. Because some somnambulists turned violent and committed other acts detrimental to society, sleepwalking also demanded attention from legal systems, and guidelines were set for whether somnambulists could be held responsible for their actions. This historical review focuses on these developments pertaining to somnambulism through the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries.     

Rare Types of Trephination from Hungary Shed New Light on Possible Cross‐cultural Connections in the Carpathian Basin

Symbolic or incomplete trephinations are very common in Hungary in 9^th–11^thcentury AD skeletal series connected to early Hungarians, although they also occur in the preceding Avar Age (6^th–9^th c. AD) material. During the compilation of a database of regional cranial modification data, the authors found rare almond‐shaped symbolic trephinations in both periods, while these had formerly only been reported in Early Hungarian series. In this study, the new almond‐shaped lesions are described along with other symbolic trephinations of 14 newly found skulls from the 8^th–11^thcenturies AD in the Southern Great Plain of Hungary. The authors review the research of the phenomenon. The new findings may strengthen the theory of direct and very close cultural connections of these two ethnic groups, adding a new aspect to the debate over the origin and relationship of Late Avar (late 7^th–early 9^th c. AD) and Early Hungarian (9^th–11^th c. AD) populations. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

From high-touch to high-tech: COVID-19 drives robotics adoption

Abstract

Global economic and social life has been severely challenged since the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the COVID-19 disease a pandemic. Travel, tourism and hospitality, in particular, has been massively impacted by the lockdowns used to maintain social distance to manage the disease. Robotics, artificial intelligence, and human-robot interactions have gained an increased presence to help manage the spread of COVID-19 in hospitals, airports, transportation systems, recreation and scenic areas, hotels, restaurants, and communities in general. Humanoid robots, autonomous vehicles, drones, and other intelligent robots are used in many different ways to reduce human contact and the potential spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, including delivering materials, disinfecting and sterilizing public spaces, detecting or measuring body temperature, providing safety or security, and comforting and entertaining patients. While controversial in the past due to concerns over job losses and data privacy, the adoption of robotics and artificial intelligence in travel and tourism will likely continue after the COVID-19 pandemic becomes less serious. Tourism scholars should seize this opportunity to develop robotic applications that enhance tourist experiences, the protection of natural and cultural resources, citizen participation in tourism development decision making, and the emergence of new ‘high-touch’ employment opportunities for travel, tourism and hospitality workers.     

Marking Identity through Cultural Cranial Modification within the First Sedentary Communities (Ninth to Eighth Millennium BCE) in the Near East: Tepe Abdul Hosein,Iran

This paper explores bioarchaeological evidence for cultural cranial modification (CCM; a.k.a. headshaping) in early Neolithic Near East and at Tepe Abdul Hosein (TAH), Iran, in particular. Skeletal remains from 12 Neolithic individuals (n  = 12) recovered from eight mortuary contexts were analysed for evidence of intentional CCM. The TAH remains are among the earliest Neolithic human skeletal remains in the world, dated to around 10 000 years ago. Five adult individuals have sufficient cranial remains to allow assessment of CCM. Of the remaining seven individuals, three are foetuses or perinates, for which no in vivo CCM was expected to be observed, two are subadults with no assessible cranial remains, and two adults have no associated cranial remains. Of the five adult individuals, which could be assessed for CCM, four display circumferential CCM, instigated by the use of two bands. Three are male, while the sex of the fourth cannot be estimated. The fifth individual displays no modification and is female. While all the modified individuals that can be sexed at TAH are male, the sample size is too small to draw extensive inferences as to the potential connection of CCM with any gendered sociocultural practices. Other possible motivations for CCM at TAH include elaboration of status differentiation or group affinity, the former of which can most likely be ruled out based on current understandings of early Neolithic societies in the region. The extent of the two‐band circumferential modification at TAH is significantly more pronounced than at Ganj Dareh, a contemporaneous site located within the same watershed. The discovery of different extents of headshaping within the same watershed, in relatively close proximity to each other, has a bearing on the understanding of the first sedentary Neolithic communities in southwest Asia and the elaboration of bodily difference and identity. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.