Metapodial asymmetry in draft cattle

Traction work by oxen has been well documented in various pictorial and written sources throughout human history. Analysis of metapodial dimensions has been carried out with the aim of quantifying asymmetry related to sexual dimorphism, body size and possibly heavy duty traction work. A modern reference sample of 103 animals from Hungary and Rumania has been used for this purpose. Bone measurements were correlated with bone density and morphological characteristics in order to make the results applicable for the identification of remains from draft cattle in archaeozoological assemblages. Asymmetry is more pronounced in the thoracic extremity and metacarpals of older or heavier animals, sometimes showing excessive widening of the third, medial ray within the fused bone. Relative broadening is also intensive in the distal end of medial metatarsals of cows and oxen. The bone mineral content of the medial carpal region attains mature density first. The weight of phalanges increases for a longer time in the laterally located toes.     

A Sixteenth-Century Draft Plan of Lisbon’s Western Suburb

The National Library of Brazil has in its cartographic collection a little-known late sixteenth-century ichnographic plan of Lisbon, Portugal, showing the city’s western extramural suburb. In this article the unfinished draft plan is analysed for what it reveals of the mapmakers’ surveying methods. Comparison of the plan with other historical sources suggests that it was produced by Giovanni Vincenzo Casale and Alexandre Massai for military purposes between 1590 and 1597. This makes it the oldest ichnographic plan of Lisbon known to date, replacing the better known ichnographic plan of Lisbon signed by João Nunes Tinoco in 1650.     

A Cognitive Approach to Extant Boat Structure in Goa,India

This article presents information derived from unfunded fieldwork undertaken between 2008 and 2014 in Goa, India. Traditional boat structure is understood in the context of the use of local materials in response to climatic, geophysical, and cultural factors. Expanded and unexpanded logboats are shown to affect differently the pirogues based on them. The outrigger is not used as a sailing aid. Small sailed boats with sewn strakes on a keel‐plank are compared with 19th‐century records. Simple techniques are used on larger sewn and metal‐fastened vessels still being built. Today some factors combine to compromise traditional construction, while others are bringing about the demise of the vessels themselves.     

Ideological Migration and War Resistance in British Columbia’s West Kootenays: An Analysis of Counterculture Politics and Community Networks among Doukhobor,Quaker, and American Migrants during the Vietnam War Era

This paper addresses migration, war resistance, and counterculture activity in the West Kootenays region of British Columbia during the 1960s and 1970s. Through a combination of perspectives including S.N. Eisenstadt’s discussion of “multiple modernities,” it reveals an ongoing pattern of alternative, values-based migration we refer to as “ideological migration.” Most immediately associated with the influx of thousands of young Americans who came to the West Kootenays during the Vietnam War, this pattern, in fact, began much earlier, first with the arrival of the Doukhobors beginning in 1908, and subsequently in the 1950s with the development of a community of American Quakers at the north end of Kootenay Lake. From there, we show how common experiences of marginalization along with with shared values of pacifism, war resistance, community-building, and self-sufficiency facilitated the arrival of this new group, and with them the entrenchment in the region of a vibrant counterculture identity.