Reproduction, Representation and Authenticity: A Rereading

This essay argues for the moral necessity of retaining connections between the practices of representation and the ideal of authenticity. Using the example of racial representation, the author finds in the political philosophy of Charles Taylor and the cultural criticism of George Steiner resources for engaging in a creative dialogue with the history of our own tradition.     

Skeletal correlates of human behavior in the americas

A review of recent anthropological research deriving behavioral inferences from analyses of human skeletal remains focuses on interpretations of diet, social organization, population structure and migration, activities, activity levels and occupation, and warfare, violence, and death in the prehistoric and historic Americas. Critical evaluation of these inferences shows that some of them suffer from inadequate supporting evidence, lack of consideration of alternative hypotheses, or absence of clear methods for deriving and testing these inferences. Overall, however, the potential for behavioral reconstruction from skeletal analysis is great. Behaviors leaving more direct effects on bone such as dietary preference, warfare, and some activities produced the most secure inferences when derived from populational samples and supported by supplementary evidence. Human skeletal remains represent important resources for the reconstruction of behavior.     

The Geochemical Fingerprint of Tufo Lionato Blocks from the Area Sacra di Largo Argentina: Implications for the Chronology of Volcanic Building Stones in Ancient Rome

We use trace element discrimination diagrams to provide a geochemical fingerprint for Tufo Lionato, the volcanic rock most commonly used in the ancient Roman dimension stone technique. Based on the comparison of their geochemical signatures, we identify different rock facies of Tufo Lionato employed since the fourth to third centuries and through the second century bce in the construction of the temples of the Area Sacra di Largo Argentina. These rock facies correspond to two previously identified building stones: Aniene Tuff and Monteverde Tuff, named after their supposed source areas located in the Aniene River Valley and in the homonymous locality of the Tiber River Valley, respectively. However, the results of our study demonstrate previous misidentification of these volcanic rocks in the different construction phases of Temple C, providing a revision of the dating system currently accepted for the diffusion of Tufo Lionato architecture. We show that the Aniene facies has been exploited since the end of the fourth century bce and that it was employed along with Tufo Giallo della Via Tiberina in the podium and staircase of Temple C, whereas observations at Largo Argentina suggest that the ‘Monteverde Tuff’ was only sporadically used in the early phases of the dimension stone construction technique.     

A postcolonial framing of Indian commercial surrogacy: issues,representations, and orientalisms

Although only legalised in 2002, Indian commercial gestational surrogacy (CGS) is an industry worth an estimated 2.3 billion USD to India at its height. Not only has this contentious topic been researched extensively from a spectrum of academic angles, representations of Indian CGS abound in both the Indian and Western popular media (novels, documentaries, films, etc.), and increasingly online, particularly in CGS websites, advertisements, and (personal) blogs. Popular media representations as well as commercial ones can often be inclined towards the sentimental and even sanctimonious, but are immensely influential in shaping public perception. This article seeks to position the discourse and representation of transnational Indian CGS more explicitly within the postcolonial framework. Thus, it addresses a theoretical gap in explicitly connecting the problematic issues of power and ethics in CGS within the paradigms of postcolonial studies, drawing also on gender and feminist frameworks. The neo-colonisation of the body has been already considered to some extent – mostly in neo-liberalist contexts – but the industry’s systemically orientalistic set up and structure has been surprisingly little mentioned, particularly where transnational surrogacy is involved, with little framing of the imperialistic hangovers and undertones dogging these particular sets of international contracts. This article maps the orientalisms (and sometimes re-orientalisms) at play in this already fraught and contentious context, positioning transnational surrogacy as another instance of imperialism, as yet another form of cultural colonisation, othering, subalternising, and peripheralising working-class Indian surrogate women in the twenty-first century.     

The Janulis Burial: A Case of Gender Fluidity in the Middle Archaic Period?

ABSTRACT

An amateur 1969 excavation at the Middle Archaic period Janulis site in Ontario unearthed the skeletal remains of three individuals and a dog. One of these, an adult female with an extensive offering, displayed several changes in the bones of her right arm and shoulder caused by the repetitive and intensive practice of an overhand throwing motion. The association of eight projectile points with her skeleton indicates that the activity was projectile throwing, suggesting a strong emphasis on hunting, normally a masculine role. She also had a turtle-shell rattle, an instrument usually associated with men in that time period. In contrast, the presence of two deer styliform bones in the burial point to a feminine role. These anomalies raise the possibility that this individual had adopted a nonbinary gender status, but the paucity of reliable comparative data makes it difficult to precisely define that status.     

Multiphase flow simulation through porous media with explicitly resolved fractures

Accurate simulation of multiphase flow in fractured porous media remains a challenge. An important problem is the representation of the discontinuous or near discontinuous behaviour of saturation in real geological formations. In the classical continuum approach, a refined mesh is required at the interface between fracture and porous media to capture the steep gradients in saturation and saturation‐dependent transport properties. This dramatically increases the computational load when large numbers of fractures are present in the numerical model. A discontinuous finite element method is reported here to model flow in fractured porous media. The governing multiphase porous media flow equations are solved in the adaptive mesh computational fluid dynamics code IC‐FERST on unstructured meshes. The method is based on a mixed control volume – discontinuous finite element formulation. This is combined with the P_N+1DG‐P_NDG element pair, which has discontinuous (order N+1) representation for velocity and discontinuous (order N) representation for pressure. A number of test cases are used to evaluate the method's ability to model fracture flow. The first is used to verify the performance of the element pair on structured and unstructured meshes of different resolution. Multiphase flow is then modelled in a range of idealised and simple fracture patterns. Solutions with sharp saturation fronts and computational economy in terms of mesh size are illustrated.     

Interconnected Epistyles of Marble Monuments Under Axial Loads

The restoration of destroyed connections of epistyles joined together by means of metallic connectors is among the most difficult problems encountered by scientists working for the conservation/restoration of monuments made of marble. The complexity of the geometry and the interaction of three completely different materials (metal-filling material-marble) constituting the connection render the study (either experimental or analytic) extremely complicated. In this direction a numerical analysis is presented here in order to deeply understand the response of a typical ancient connection subjected to axial loads as well as to quantify the influence of some geometric parameters on its response. The parameters studied include the length of the connector, the width of its flanges, the depth of the groove (mortise), the existence or not of relieving space and the filling material’s volume. The numerical model was calibrated and validated according to the results of an earlier experimental study realized on the worksite of the Parthenon Temple. It was concluded that the interventions required to relieve the stress field by changing the size of the connector are disproportional to the respective positive effect on the response of the connection. Moreover it was proved that the most beneficial parameter is the relieving space.     

Updating Numerical Models of Masonry Arch Bridges by Operational Modal Analysis

This article aims at presenting and discussing the strategies for updating the finite element numerical modeling of stone masonry arch bridges using operational modal analysis. The study comprehended three bridges: two old ones, the St. Lázaro and the Lagoncinha bridges, and a recently constructed bridge in Vila Fria, Portugal. Updating of the bridge models is performed by comparing the numerical and experimental modal parameters. Three-dimensional detailed numerical models are used to perform modal analysis of the bridges. Experimental modal identification of the bridges is based on the measurement of their acceleration responses during normal operation. The assigned material properties are also based on available results obtained from in situ and laboratory tests and on the results of visual inspection and historical research carried out for both old bridges.     

Legislative accountability in a mixed-member system

Accountability of representatives to electors is a key indicator of democratic health. In mixed-member systems, the coexistence of two kinds of representation provides the opportunity to test competing claims with minimal confounding factors. There is debate about the relative accountability of constituency and list MPs, and in particular, concerning dual candidacy, where individuals can stand for both constituency and list seats. Analysing New Zealand elections since 1999, with comparisons back to the previous single-member plurality system, this article examines the effects of dual candidacy, legislative turnover and the cases where constituency or electorate MPs have lost their seats, but remained in Parliament as list members.

代表对选民负责乃民主是否健康的一个关键指标。在混合成员制下,两类代表的共存为比较单纯地检验其竞争的主张提供了机会。不过,选区及名单议员的相对责任,尤其在一个个体可以既代表选区又代表名单席位的情况下的责任,对此是有争议的。本文分析了新西兰1999年以来的选举,并与之前的单一成员多数选举制做了对比,还考察了双重候选人制的效果、议员的流动、以及选区或议员落选但依然是国会名单成员的情况。