Search

By comparing the present and past avifauna, we investigate the human practices that involved the knowledge and interaction with birds during the Late-Holocene in Puna Austral Argentina. Ethnoarchaeological methodology was used, which included the analysis of feathers recovered from archeological excavations and interviews with local people. Interviews and bird observations were carried out in the spring/summer months, and in some cases the interviewees accompanied us to make the sightings. The results show a correspondence between current and past bird populations for some species of Passeriformes, Strigiformes, Rheiformes, and Anseriformes. Continuity was observed in the interaction of people with certain birds. This is linked to their farming and livestock lifestyle. Currently this situation is changing due to the increasing expansion of mining activities. This research establishes a baseline to compare the consequences of mining on avifauna and the local population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The chartography of physical and imaginary borders between different national communities has historically been a challenging political process, especially in the case of the Balkan Peninsula. As regards ethno-nationalism in the Western Balkans, religion is one of the rudimental and constitutive elements of a nation's identity. Yet, in theory this can only be true for a religiously homogenous nation-state, although this region is far from being home to religious homogeneity. A case in point is Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), where the lack of religious homogeneity can be illustrated through the three different religions that dominate the two political entities in the country. Albania, another country of Western Balkans, is similar to the case of BiH in relation to religious diversity among its population, but different from it in relation to religion not being an identity element upon which its nation is founded. In view of this diversity of mixed religious heritage embedded in the state formation, this article focuses on the nature of the ethno-religious nationalism in BiH and Albania. By employing a comparative case study approach, this article sets the analytical framework for the study of ethno-religious nationalism, while addressing the state approaches, policy orientations and challenges that characterize the governance of religious diversity in these countries in the post-communist era. The concept of religious nationalism - which is operationalized in ethnic terms – is used to shed light on the two states' nation-building efforts, which have incorporated a marked religious element. The paper concludes with a cross-country analysis on how the volatility of ethno-religious coexistence in BiH and Albania has shaped their present and shall impact their future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pre-hispanic ballgames have an extensive temporal depth and geographical breadth across Mesoamerica, with over 1,500 ball courts recorded on 1,200 archaeological sites in Mexico alone. It is likely that ballgames played critical but variable roles in how communities related to each other. Most interpretations emphasize ballgames as cosmological rituals and legitimation practices exclusive to elites, perhaps often overlooking the more mundane sociopolitical processes and reasons why they carried such critical meaning for people of all classes and statuses. Ethnographic research on modern ballgames played by Indigenous and mestizo communities today can helpfully provide some insights or maybe deeper understandings into ancient ballgame practices and their relation to Mesoamerican communities. While modern games are not isomorphic with the ancient games, the duration of these traditions underscores their continuing importance and their relativity to current research. In this article I present the results of an ethnographic study of the modern ballgame pelota mixteca de hule (Mixtec rubber ballgame) in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca. Considering the results from the ethnographic data, I then discuss an archaeological case study in the Nejapa Valley of southeastern Oaxaca where numerous ballcourts were recently documented over the past decade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mitote festivals are the main ceremonies of the agricultural cycle among the current indigenous groups of the Sierra del Nayar: Coras, Huichols, Tepehuanes and Mexicaneros. These are carried out on stony hills outside the towns and some anthropologists consider them a pre-Hispanic remnant. The ethnographic analogy and especially the ethnoarchaeological record of a mitote cora patio allowed us to interpret certain archaeological sites in wild and difficultto-access areas with evidence of culinary practices but that were not permanently inhabited as ceremonial centers, that is, as patios of mitote and confirm that this type of ceremonies did begin in pre-Hispanic times, at least in the south of Sinaloa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers a large-scope assessment of archaeological and ethnoarchaeological research on foodways within the core Mediterranean heartlands of the Ottoman Empire. It integrates evidence from a range of historical and archaeological sources, both terrestrial and underwater. After presenting an overview of 30 years of scholarship on the subject, it introduces the Ottoman manner of eating, cooking, and dining with the help of glazed tablewares and unglazed coarse wares from archaeological contexts. Furthermore, it shows the means of transportation and the trade routes for foodstuffs, as well as the ways in which they were cooked and consumed, from the sultan's court to country folk in rural villages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the late 1930s Joseph Toulouse Jr., Kirk Bryan, and Bryan McCann published two articles describing the archaeology and geology of seventeen preceramic sites near Grants, New Mexico. George Agogino, Jim Hester, and William Roosa periodically revisited a subset of these sites during the 50s and 60s, publishing three brief articles and collecting additional artifacts. Despite the importance of these sites to the history of preceramic research in Northern New Mexico, no complete inventory or analysis of the projectile point collections has been undertaken to date. In this article, we provide: (1) a brief history of the Grants San Jose collections, (2) an inventory of diagnostic projectile points, (3) an analysis of raw materials represented and geochemical analysis of a sample of volcanic dart points, and (4) a brief discussion of the collections' implications for the pre-ceramic archaeology of the Grants area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Dobe !Kung were a group of foragers living in northern Botswana in the Kalahari Desert. In the second half of the twentieth century, their butchery actions on animal prey were recorded (1968–1975) and their abandoned camps from 1944–1976 were excavated to retrieve faunal remains from butchered prey animals. Here we test the hypothesis that bone surface modifications on these excavated faunal remains accurately reflect these butchery observations. We find that despite a few exceptions, the observed bone surface modifications follow the expectations derived from observations of butchery of different sized animals. This supports the idea that past butchery actions, based on the location and presence of bone surface modifications on modern bones, can be confidently linked to past butchery behaviours. We also suggest that bone surface modifications can provide information about past hunter-gatherer processing behaviours, cooking styles, and use of hides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Cooking with Plants in Ancient Europe and Beyond: Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Archaeology of Plant Foods" is a valuable resource for researchers studying food production in the past. The book features state-of-the-art research on the archaeology of plant-based food production, with a focus on the Aegean and Balkans regions. It includes case studies from various geographic areas, such as South Asia and the United States, and explores the challenges of working with archaeological plants. The book also examines the tools and techniques used in food processing and preparation. Overall, "Cooking with Plants" is a comprehensive and diverse collection of papers that would benefit anyone interested in plant-based food. [Extracted from the article]

Feathers addresses the dual challenges of inferring original vessel counts from sherds and inference to use life from reconstructed vessels. His solution assumes the validity of sherd assemblages as units of observation that considerable research invalidates and overlooks methods that estimate original vessels from sherds. Feathers also doubts that use life can be inferred for reconstructed vessels. Although not a focus of my article, the larger study from which it derived addresses this matter in detail that strongly warrants vessel size as uselife measure. Of course we must be pragmatic in quantifying pottery assemblages, but first we must identify valid units of observation, and only then attend to pragmatics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review surveys studies of men and masculinities in anthropology and ethnography from other disciplines, as well as theoretical frameworks and debates among anthropologists and other relevant scholars in the field. It also aims to assess developments in these studies since an earlier Annual Review of Anthropology article was published on this subject. By considering the ethnographic boom in men and masculinities studies across the globe since 2000, increasingly authored by anthropologists from the Global South, this review considers anthropology's singular contributions topically and conceptually—for example, masculinity and militarism, men and public health, gender inequalities, and trans* social movements—including through innovative research in biological and linguistic anthropology and archaeology. Throughout, this article reflects on the extent to which anthropologists have moved (and if they should have moved) beyond the study of women or men to instead explore gender, sex, and sexuality of humans and nonhuman animals in less binary frameworks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Empirically, the papers in this special issue of Nationalism and Ethnic Politics focus on what lies in between the statuses of insider and outsider, namely the often-overlooked conditionality and temporality of inclusion, the messiness of policies aiming to foster ethnic pluralism, the uneven distribution of attitudes among the members of so-called ethnic groups. They strive to overcome binary shortcuts and the ideological polarization that have recently infested intellectual and political discourse and provide answers to the following questions: Who is conditionally included/excluded in comparison to whom, and for what reasons? What does this conditional inclusion/exclusion entail in terms of pluralist rights and possibilities vs. assimilationist requirements? How does this inclusion/exclusion affect the cultural and economic wellbeing of both the (im)migrants and the receiving society? Drawing on these empirial examples and framing them conceptually, this introductory paper shows that while binaries are a staple in the study of nationalism and ethnic politics, they also give rise to theorizations of ethnocultural pluralism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our paper describes the demarche of our research trail in Ethnoarchaeology over 20 years through various research projects since 1986, when we begun carrying out research projects in Tierra del Fuego (TdF). Our objective was to test and develop the archaeological methodology to open up the possibility of approaching the social organization of prehistoric hunter-fisher-gatherer (HFG) societies. We follow chronologically and discuss the successive stages of our line of research and how one step led us to the next step, structuring a successive series of research projects. The bulky volume of bibliography produced including all the methodological details, empirical data, concrete results, etc... is cited at each step for readers who want to dig deeper into the details. There is also an open repository with all the documentation and information on the TdF projects. The conclusion of this long lasting ethnoarchaeological experimental trail was that it is indeed possible, through Archeology, to determine the existence and functioning of social organization in prehistoric HFG. Along these years following the same system of ethnoarchaeological contrasting, we analyzed the development of the coastal societies of the Northwest Coast of America with that of TdF, considered examples of the opposite extremes of HFG social organization. We stated the preponderance of social norms that regulate reproduction and their direct relationship with the discrimination of women and the division of labor according to sex. We have proposed as an explanation for this divergent development the alternative options for the management of reproduction. To reinforce these conclusions, we replicate through the use of Agent Simulation the effect of specific social norms on the reproduction of five groups of HFG. The conclusions reinforced that social norms that affect biological and social reproduction are critical for the sustainability of societies that do not directly control the reproduction of their resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ethnoarchaeological studies attempt to link human behavior to material remains for the purpose of developing archaeological method and theory. Traditional studies in spatial ethnoarchaeology have focused on mapping features and refuse, but the spatial distribution of the behaviors that produced them, the thing that interests us most, has for good reason gone largely undocumented. Until recently, it was not technically possible to map people in space in a way that is simultaneously accurate, precise, and unobtrusive. In this paper, we discuss the use of time-lapse photography and photogrammetry for the direct, frequent, and high precision mapping of human behavior in ethnographic contexts. Using two experiments, we show that this method can produce human locational data that are accurate and have submeter precision, typically of 25 cm or less. We illustrate the utility of this method by examining how the exterior space of a camp of Dukha reindeer herders in northern Mongolia is divided by household. We argue this method provides much needed data on how humans use space while allowing for the collection of ancillary behavioral and contextual information from imagery. As such, time-lapse photography and photogrammetry could become part of the standard toolkit for ethnoarchaeological research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During two trips to the Indian part of the Himalayas in the state of Himachal Pradesh in 1999, I had the opportunity to observe various archaeological manifestations of pastoral activities. In the area of the Indrahar Pass above the town of Dharamsala, the first observations were made. Short-term shelters along the road through the pass, which is used to move herds over the mountains, are complemented by stable stone buildings used by transhumant herders, as well as stable villages. On the way, in addition to the objects that provide the necessities of life (springs), we also find a shrine. The second site is the Chikka valley, near the village of Jagatsukh, near Manali. Here it has been possible to document whole groups of short-term shelters of different ages. Several short-term shelters are also associated with pastoral activities, and shrines can be found in one valley. Grazing activity could also be observed from vegetation symptoms. Field observations at both sites show a surprisingly large variability in traces of pastoral activity, some of which are archaeologically very inconspicuous and easily disappear in the long-term time horizon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An editorial is presented on the discusses the development of ethno archaeology as a discipline, focusing on the application of analogies and ethnological observations to reconstruct prehistoric lifestyles. It highlights the use of photographic material and sketches from various regions, it mentions that the wide geographical scope and diverse professional interests within this field.

The use of ethnographic and ethnohistoric data to inform reconstructions of past human societies has a long tradition. While simple ethnographic analogies have been used since the beginning of archaeological research, since the 1950s there have been several efforts to rationalize and systematize their use. This led to the development of several new methods, including direct historic analogy, ethnoarchaeology, and comparative ethnology. The latter is now experiencing a resurgence, stimulated by the digitization of large ethnographic databases and the development of new analytical methods. As part of a broader cross-cultural research approach, comparative ethnology explicitly aims to answer questions about the incidence, distribution, and causes of cultural variation. Based on the statistical evaluation of theories and large samples of cultures, this approach not only illustrates variation in cultural practices, but also provides supporting arguments for archaeological hypotheses. Specifically, it can (1) reveal archaeological indicators of human behavior, (2) test causal and non-causal associations between diverse cultural and ecological variables, and (3) reconstruct the evolutionary paths of specific cultural traits. Despite significant development in this field over recent decades, the application of comparative ethnology to the study of the human past is still relatively rare in the archaeological community. Our aim is to (re)introduce this method and demonstrate its potential to address archaeological questions through several recent case studies from two thematic research areas: hunter-gatherers and kinship systems. This paper demonstrates the breadth and variation of topics that can be studied using comparative ethnology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pottery is an ancient technology in Africa that transformed how people store and prepare their foods. It is a craft technology frequently associated with women and is often practiced by people who belong to marginalized social groups with limited access to farmland. This article offers insight into traditional pottery-making and how women have innovated the craft under changing sociopolitical and economic circumstances. It also addresses the more recent government policies that have shaped potters' access to clay. In addition, the article examines how competition with alternative materials, including plastics and enamels, has challenged women's ability to maintain their pottery-making livelihoods and inspired potters' creativity in circumventing the challenges imposed on them. The study provides insights into the archaeological implications of resilience and dynamism in the pottery technological tradition and considers these in relation to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Résumé: La poterie est une technologie ancienne en Afrique qui a transformé la façon dont les gens préparent et stockent leurs aliments. Il s'agit d'une technologie artisanale fréquemment associée aux femmes, et souvent pratiquée par des personnes appartenant à des groupes sociaux marginalisés, ayant accès limité aux terres agricoles. Cet article offre un aperçu de la fabrication traditionnelle de la poterie et des façons dont les femmes ont innové l'artisanat dans des circonstances socio-politiques et économiques changeantes. Il aborde également les politiques gouvernementales plus récentes qui ont façonné l'accès des potiers à l'argile. Nous proposons également d'élaborer comment l'arrivée des matériaux autres, tels les plastiques et les émaux, a mis à l'épreuve la capacité des femmes à maintenir leurs moyens de subsistance en matière de poterie, tout en inspirant la créativité des potiers pour contourner les défis qui leur sont imposés. L'étude donne un aperçu des implications archéologiques de la résilience et du dynamisme dans la tradition technologique de la poterie, et les considère par rapport aux objectifs de développement durable (ODD) des Nations Unies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates ancestral Wendat pottery making in southern Ontario through the Wendat perspective of Sǫhahiyǫh, a Wendat potter. Our study is based on eyewitness accounts of Sǫhahiyǫh making pots, along with detailed photographs and his own artistic reflections on his gestures related to all stages of pottery making. To create a detailed description that sheds light on ancestral Wendat potting communities and their practices, we investigate the entanglement of material interactions, personalized embodied knowledge of a highly skilled potter, and Wendat practices and beliefs. Our research provides an enhanced understanding of ceramic traditions and demonstrates the opportunities that arise from building relationships with Indigenous community members and centering Indigenous perspectives to study past material practices in the Lower Great Lakes region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We analyze the practices of building, dismantling and moving (with material reutilization) of rural traditional houses in the Santiago del Estero plain. This study is carried out due to its potential for approaching problems linked to the archaeological record of local architecture and the dynamics of pre-Columbian residential space, issues without much archaeological information. The ethnographical observations were guided by questions arisen by the reading of archaeological data of mound sites inhabited in the region between ca. 1000 BP and peri-colonial moments. The analysis is focused on the possible consequences of practices similar to the present ones in the formation and interpretation (stratigraphical, chronological, spatial, functional) of the archaeological record, and on how such kind of practices in the past can be traced and detected through the archaeological data. Based on that, we propose a model of pre-Columbian house and residence management related to the environmental and social dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While work has been done to uncover the roles of female archaeologists who supported their husband's careers with little acknowledgment or support, less work has been done to explore the diversity of hidden women's labor that helped support American archaeology during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (Browman 2013; White et al. 1999). Institutions such as Harvard's Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology and the Robert S. Peabody Institute of Archaeology benefitted early on from countless female staff, including clerks, secretaries, and librarians. This paper seeks to make connections between women's labor in archaeology in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century and adjunct labor in the late twentieth and early twenty‐first century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Practices of collecting have been integral to archaeology as well as to anthropology more generally since the inception of the disciplines. From the history of collecting in the later nineteenth and twentieth centuries, it is clear that although the degree of coercion varied, the practices of collecting inevitably took place in contexts of starkly unequal power relations and associated forms of violence. More than just the act of collecting, it is also the ways collections are handled, made available (or not), curated, and discarded that are imbued with different kinds of violence. This article draws on the case of human and other remains recovered in excavations on the campus of the Free University of Berlin (Germany) and examines the ways in which the amassing, use, and discard of collections are entwined with violent practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How does one ethically care for a global collection shaped and maintained within a colonial context? How do we address institutional responsibilities in a way that is transparent, rigorous and reparative? This article discusses on-going conservation research at the University of Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology as part of a 5-year storage relocation project. Moving beyond key vocabularies and abstract critique, this work examines the potential role of conservation in documenting and interpreting evidence for damage, displacement and erasure related to methods of colonial knowledge production and historic museum practice. The work includes a consideration of the language used to distinguish modifications resulting from museum practice such as the application of pesticides; monitoring change over time; the expectation of object longevity; and the potential consequences of disrupted traditions of maintenance and knowledge exchange. The article concludes by reflecting on the ways in which technical vocabularies, documentation and decision-making processes can shape and even improve the ways in which these collections are studied, valued and utilised by a diversity of stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chakwal is located in Potohar Plateau of the Punjab Province. Town Bhoun of District Chakwal has historic significance as it is famous for carding archaeological sites and monuments. A rich archaeological mound of Pind Kahoot is located on the periphery of town Bhoun in District Chakwal. The site is occupied for agricultural activities. Whenever the farmers plough their fields and stones stuck the plough, they put them aside. So, the borders of the mound are over laid by stones of various sizes and debris. The mound is spanning over a vast area and its surface is covered with potsherds of different wares, textures, and sizes. The findings from the site include pottery, terracotta figurines and pipes, grinding stones, game discs, metallic jewelry, terracotta, steatite and carnelian beads, and bones. The current paper focuses on an analytical and comparative study of artifacts. It will also trace occupancy of different cultures and their relative chronological sequence. Besides, it will also elaborate the ethnoarchaeological study by establishing a link between the recovered artifacts and contemporary traditional practices in terms of materials and techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document is a book review of "Sentient Archaeologies: Global Perspectives on Places, Objects, and Practices," edited by Courtney Nimura, Rebecca O'Sullivan, and Richard Bradley. The book is a collection of 30 essays dedicated to the work of Chris Gosden, a prominent figure in archaeology and anthropology. The essays cover a wide range of topics, including the relationship between past societies and the places they inhabited, the interconnections between material culture and technology, and innovative theories in archaeology. The review highlights the theme of relational perspectives in the book, emphasizing the idea that archaeological objects are not just objects, but stories that narrate the histories of ancient communities. Overall, the book is praised for its intellectual journey and its contribution to the field of archaeology. [Extracted from the article]

This paper is about the presence and distribution of zoomorphic (and anthropomorphic) sculptures of sambaquian style in Rio Grande do Sul and their relations with the ethnological knowledge of contemporary fisherman. From this perspective, it is believed that it is possible to propose new inferences on the interpretation of these sculptures and on the dynamics of sambaquian occupation in Rio Grande do Sul, as well assess the continuity of human activity in the litoral environment and coastal resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Common salt, or sodium chloride, has always been a strategic resource of primary importance throughout the world. In pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica, salt was used primarily for human consumption, as the native diet had little chloride or sodium, two chemical components that are indispensable for human health and nutrition. Here I discuss the traditional salt industries of Michoacán, Colima, Guerrero, the Basin of Mexico and Puebla, paying special attention to the production sites and the tool assemblages linked to salt production in these areas of Mesoamerica. This article sheds light on salt's role in the culture and history of the ancient Mesoamerican ecumene through the lens of ethnoarchaeology and ethnohistory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In southern Africa and elsewhere, the archaeological study of ceramics largely relies on two approaches that tend to be treated separately: technology and style. While the emphasis of Iron Age archaeology has been on the range of shapes and decorative characteristics of pots and how these are determined or illustrative of cultural identities, little is known about the technological processes of ceramic production. This article uses ethnoarchaeological methods to examine the chaine operatories of ceramic production in specific sociocultural contexts among the Nguni-speaking (Zulu) peoples in the Upper and Lower uThukela Basins in KwaZulu-Natal. The study focuses on social and technical decisions for ceramic production and documents production stages and attributes, design, style, and functional components. Moreover, the social characteristics of production stages are used to understand various techniques, processes, tools, and materials involved in ceramic production, including distribution and apprenticeship. The social and operational attributes of ceramic production discussed in this article are potential sources for developing models that would bridge the gaps between the technology and style approaches in the archaeological study of Iron Age ceramics in southern Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article summarizes the results of the content analysis of "Temner" (Times) bulletin from 2007 to 2016. These periodicals were published by the "Shoria" Novokuznetsk city public association representing the ethnocultural development interests of Shors -- the indigenous ethnos living in Southern Kuzbass. The specific nature of this readership (one that the bulletin is aimed at) is characterized by the intense industrial exploitation of its population area in recent decades. In turn, this entails a complex of ecological, economic and socio-cultural issues. In this regard, the author attempts to reveal the image of the "environment" (as viewed by the indigenous people), that is constructed for a general reader, its propensity for conflict and tolerance. The results of the analysis demonstrate the complex nature of the image in question defined by the variety of published news, as well as special attention to most of its components that determine the lives of the indigenous people. Thus, while the relations with (coal) mining companies and other entities directly intervening in the indigenous lifestyle are characterized most alarmingly, a trend to forming the image of authorities and international organizations as "protector, benefactor and partner" is clearly seen. The author supposes that the former is caused by the personal opinion of the authors of articles and news texts as they represent Shor intellectuals sharing their anxiety about the vulnerability of traditional ethnic values. At the same time, the presentation of materials dealing with the ethnic and national policy (international, national and regional) demonstrates the orientation of civil society towards cooperation with national and international entities, as well as the intention to maintain the trust of the audience in them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taphonomy originates as a branch of palaeontology addressed to the study of processes occurring from the pre-agonic stages of an organism to the recovery of the fossilized palaeontological record. The rigorous methodology in recording data and the analysis accuracy allows application in forensic science. The use of taphonomical procedures in studying and searching for clandestine graves is described here. In the search for clandestine graves, taphonomy can help in narrowing the area of investigations, finding sites with adequate diggability and topography, and detecting anomalies on the ground. In the study of clandestine graves, taphonomy in tandem with other disciplines, such as forensic archaeology and anthropology, may contribute to investigation with rigorous excavation methods, stratigraphical survey, environmental reconstructions, sample and evidence records, burial characterization, body positioning and damages, and preservation patterns of human skeletal remains. Applications are also possible in karstic sites where several "Mafia cemeteries" may be found in the Italian territory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was established in 1993. Intended to shed light on the events that occurred during the Yugoslav conflict (1992-1995) and to prosecute and convict those accused of crimes against human rights and international humanitarian law, it's mandate lasted until 2017. This paper was prompted precisely by this end. It takes stock of the contributions of archaeology and forensic anthropology to the Tribunal's investigations and argues that the work of these professionals provided evidence of the systematic attack in which civilians were killed as part of a state policy of extermination against ethnic and religious groups in the region. The authors also point out the importance of the involvement of Latin American professionals in this research, as well as how much this experience enriched research processes in Latin America itself. This work is based on a systematic bibliographic search, which includes, among other documents, archives that were reserved at the time, but are now open to the public. It also draws on information obtained from the authors' participation in the forensic operations conducted between 1999 and 2001, both in the field and in the morgue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Death is not the end, but rather a beginning. Drawing on historical sources and ethnographic fieldwork with the Wayana Indigenous People of French Guiana, this essay explores the interrelationships embodied during mortuary practices and personal treatment of the dead. This research emerged from questions raised during the archaeological excavations at Anse à la Gourde, Guadeloupe, and, in turn, contributes to the study of burial practices in Caribbean archaeology. More broadly, an understanding of Wayana mortuary practices, illustrated with exceptional photographs and indigenous narratives, is to further the conceptualization of the complexity, wide variety and individualization of personal treatment of the dead, and the interrelationships with ancestors and other social others in Guiana, Amazonia, and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I examine the connection between ethnic federalism and the development of ethnic rather than national identities. The literature suggests such ethnification can lead to conflict and collapse of federal states—does such ethnification occur and is it attributable to ethnofederalism? Using recent data from the Afrobarometer for Ethiopia, which adopted an ethnofederal arrangement in 1995, I examine whether individuals who were politically socialized under the conditions of ethnic federalism are more likely to favor ethnic identity over a national, Ethiopian, identity. I find that individuals politically socialized under the conditions of ethnic federalism are indeed significantly more likely to embrace an ethnic rather than a national identity. However, generational affects do not appear to be related to perceptions of continuing ethnic federalism as a political arrangement. Differences of opinion on ethnic federalism are more a function of one's group identity, rather than the intensity of ethnic identification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is part of ongoing research into the largely unpublished corpus of offering trays and soul houses currently in the care of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. The goal of this preliminary exposition is to draw attention to the Penn material, examine how it fits with past studies, and explore the broader uses and significance of offering trays and soul houses during the First Intermediate Period and Middle Kingdom. This paper addresses the interconnections between the worlds of the living and the dead and touches on the myriad of ways the ancient Egyptians chose to model, display, and represent those connections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During Late Bronze Age, the evolutions of previous archaeological cultures (from the Middle Bronze Age) are continued and completed, but there are also two important cultural complexes emerging, namely: Noua-Sabatinovka-Coslogeni and Zimnicea-Plovdiv. The subject of interest in the present study is represented by Noua culture, attested in a vast area, from the middle and upper Dniester, to the east of Apuseni Mountains and from the Subcarpathian region of Ukraine to the south of the forest-steppe area between Siret and Prut Rivers. Although, over time, the specific communities of this cultural manifestation have been investigated in numerous specialized studies, the interdisciplinary methods used in recent years can offer new information that contribute to the obtaining of a much clearer picture regarding the behavior of the human groups in question. In this sense, in the present paper, special attention was paid to the ceramic material identified during the archaeological excavations of sites belonging to Noua culture which, unfortunately, in most situations, is still 'trapped' in the discourse from the middle of the 20th century. In this sense, there is a continuous perpetuation of the typology created by A.C. Florescu in the ʾ60s, namely: jar-vessels, bag-vessels, bowls, cups, glasses, etc. Thus, using the volumetric typology, developed by Anne O. Shepard almost 70 years ago, and correlating the information obtained with those regarding decoration, context and dimensions, but also with data from the field of ethnoarchaeology, this study aims to identify the intended functions of the ceramic recipients used by Noua communities from Jijia River Basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Methodological bias can directly affect the interpretation of research data. Studies reporting on excavated skeletons represent a valuable source of information in medicine, dentistry, archaeology and anthropology, and forensic sciences. However, these studies represent a specific setting with their own methodology, for which no quality assessment tool is available. The aim was to develop a critical appraisal tool to assess the methodological quality of studies reporting on archaeologically excavated human skeletons. An international Delphi study was therefore conducted to support item generation and ensure content validity for a new tool. Experts from the following domains were consulted: dentistry, forensic sciences, archaeology and anthropology, general medicine, epidemiology, and statistics. Participants judged the relevance and comprehensiveness of items retrieved from the literature. Consensus was predefined as 75% agreement between experts, and achieved within two Delphi rounds. As a result, 44 and 32 participants completed the first and second Delphi rounds, respectively, achieving consensus on 17 items. This research provides the first evidence‐based tool for the methodological assessment of studies reporting on archaeologically excavated skeletons. Clinicians and researchers can use this tool for critical appraisal of studies or when performing systematic reviews. Future research will focus on psychometric testing of the newly developed tool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investigating the organic content of archaeological pottery has largely focused on identifying food commodities, but their use and mode of processing still need to be thoroughly investigated. The present study aims to explore the diversity of organic residue absorption patterns, over a wider range of functions than previously studied by experimentation, by analysing ceramics still in use today. A field survey in Bedik Country, Senegal, where the use of pottery is still alive, was conducted to document the uses of ceramics and to interview potters and users of the vessels. As a preliminary study, nine ceramics whose use was recorded were investigated through 59 samples for their absorbed molecular profiles, lipid concentrations, and the preservation of triglycerides and C18 unsaturated fatty acids. The interpretations were first carried out as a blind test and then compared with the actual use. Lipid concentrations and molecular profiles indicated a diversity of contents, and the comparison of samples taken along the vertical transects of the vessels resulted in pottery function hypotheses that were broadly aligned with the actual uses. Cooking pots for fat-rich products were successfully identified, but the various documented patterns showed that lipid accumulation in ceramics is more complex than expected. Although caution is required to adopt this approach for archaeological pots, the vessel for fermenting plant products has been identified. Last, this work pointed out that ceramics can be used for a wider range of purposes than those usually considered for archaeological pottery, such as steaming or cooking non-food products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technologies and their production systems are used by archaeologists and anthropologists to study complexity of socio-technical systems. However, there are several issues that hamper agreement about what constitutes complexity and how we can systematically compare the complexity of production systems. In this work, we propose a novel approach to assess the behavioural and structural complexity of production systems using Petri nets. Petri nets are well-known formal models commonly used in, for example, biological and business process modelling, as well as software engineering. The use of Petri nets overcomes several obstacles of current approaches in archaeology and anthropology, such as the incompatibility of the intrinsic sequential logic of the available methods with inherently non-sequential processes, and the inability to explicitly model activities and resources separately. We test the proposed Petri net modelling approach on two traditional production systems of adhesives made by Ju/'hoan makers from Nyae, Namibia from Ammocharis coranica and Ozoroa schinzii plants. We run simulations in which we assess the complexity of these two adhesive production systems in detail and show how Petri net dynamics reveal the structural and behavioural complexity of different production scenarios. We show that concurrency may be prevalent in the production system of adhesive technologies and discuss how changes in location during the process may serve to control the behavioural complexity of a production system. The approach presented in this paper paves the way for future systematic visualization, analysis, and comparison of ancient production systems, accounting for the inherent complex, concurrent, and action/resource-oriented aspects of such processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Archaeologists see the value, if not the allure, of formation theory. Before inferring what happened in the past and why, we must know how the material record formed. Pottery is abundant and informative, therefore a common analytical subject. Understanding size and composition of ceramics assemblages requires formation theory, including knowledge of vessel use life. This fundamental quantity has two salient properties. The first--central tendency measured by mean or median--is widely acknowledged. Use life's second, equally important, property is the distribution of failure-age by specimen across assemblages. This article considers how and why both use-life properties affect size and composition of pottery assemblages. From a longitudinal ethnoarchaeology of household pottery in Michoacán, Mexico, it identifies vessel-size measures that correlate with use-life mean, and it demonstrates archaeologically innovative ways to characterize distributions that improve both analysis of assemblages and comparison between them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With respect to the relationship between the state and democracy, the scholarly research thus far has mainly oscillated between two perspectives: 'no state, no democracy' versus 'no democracy, no state'. Using the example of former Yugoslav republics and based on Mill's method of difference that is complemented with process tracing, we offer an alternative approach. We posit that a democracy can emerge within the context of unresolved matters of state and nation but it is unlikely that it will flourish. Furthermore, we argue that stateness problem creates conditions that facilitate democratic backsliding even if a country achieves a considerable level of democratic development: a fertile ground for ethno‐political entrepreneurship and national identity‐based political divisions that promote polarization. Accordingly, besides facilitating democratization, a resolved stateness problem should be regarded as a condition that fosters democratic resilience as well. The article contributes to a better understanding of the relationship between the state and democracy and reveals the mechanisms that are behind a successful subversion of democracy in the name of the nation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although we are aware that nation branding features across the media, discussion and debate continue over its perceived influence in peoples' everyday understandings and lives. This paper, by way of a response, examines peoples' reactions to specific government campaign messages of patriotism and unity designed to combat internal ethnic conflict in Malaysia. Malaysia, at this time, provides a unique subject of analysis as it includes an instance where a domestically focused nation branding campaign is being employed to instigate unity among ethnic groups residing within a country with a history of ethnic conflict and social engineering policies. The project introduces several TV campaign story examples, identified for their prevalence in the 1Malaysia nation branding campaign, to representatives from three prominent ethnic groups in Malaysia to map their responses. The paper finds that group representatives interpret the stories using their shared insider views of the nation or 'ethno‐national imaginaries'. Their acceptance of, and critical challenges to, the images and narratives of the TV campaign stories are seen therefore to reflect group representatives' wider positions, interests and participation in an ongoing political conflict shaped within the logics of the Malaysian nation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

John Lubbock (1834–1913) was born to social and scientific status. His father was a wealthy banker and a respected astronomer. Lubbock's youthful enthusiasm for insects was encouraged by Charles Darwin who lived only two miles from the Lubbock family estate, and Darwin mentored him as his interest in natural history developed. My focus is Lubbock's contemporary reputation, over many different areas of science and over time. In comparing Lubbock's reputation across scientific specialities, John Clark's thesis, that Lubbock's entomology was considered more important than his archaeology and anthropology is confirmed; his botany and geology shown to be less respected. A second consideration, alluded to by "gentleman" in the title, is the extent to which Lubbock's success and reputation was due to his high social position – he was Sir John, fourth baronet, from 1865 and Lord Avebury from 1900. Third, the ways in which Lubbock was "Darwinian" or "non-Darwinian" by both contemporary and modern criteria are analysed. Fourth, in following the course of Lubbock's career, contradictory assessments of the significance of his research appear which involve diverse valuations of specialist/popular, theoretical/experimental and original/synthesizing scientific work. Countering the many derogatory associations of "popular science," his lectures and books on topics of "general interest" for "general" readers were widely praised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cycladic architecture has been the focus of archaeological, ethnographic and architectural studies, which have produced significant knowledge about the islands’ built environment. Despite the number of published studies, there is little archaeological evidence related to the parts of buildings, such as roofs and second storeys made of degradable materials (i.e. sediments and organic materials), which are nowadays lost or poorly preserved. On the other hand, ethnographic and architectural studies lack the details of local variabilities regarding the construction of the fragile architectural components. This geo-ethnoarchaeological study applied a high-resolution analysis including soil micromorphology and phytoliths to the roofs of abandoned traditional farmsteads (mitata) on two islands, Kato Kouphonisi and Naxos in the Cyclades, supplemented by oral testimonies from elderly residents and published ethnographic information. This was combined with comparable microstratigraphic analysis conducted on sediments from the nearby Early Bronze Age site of Dhaskalio, Keros. The analysis of abandoned farmsteads generated a high-resolution dataset of micro-characteristics linked to known practices and materials of traditional roof construction. These were then traced into our archaeological samples to detect similar features and ultimately improve on contextual interpretation beyond field observations. We therefore suggest that this geo-ethnoarchaeological approach is useful in the identification of roof sediments in archaeological deposits, enhancing the ability to recognise such events in the field and demonstrating that a signature of collapse events can be defined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this essay, I examine how scholars and art critics have categorized Guatemalan American visual artist Alex Donis and how he has self-identified. I argue that the roles in which Donis has been cast underscore the ways US Central Americans are made invisible within discussions of Latina/o/x and LGBTQ+ art. I critically analyze two of his works, the silkscreen Rio, por no llorar (1988) and the painting Guatemala vs USA (Carlos (El Pescadito) Ruiz & Carlos Bocanegra) (2014), tracing a Guatemalan and Central American presence in Donis's visual art that is often overlooked in favor of a Chicanocentric framing in conversations about his work. While recognizing the influence that Chicana/o/x art and culture have had on Donis, I locate Donis and his visual art as a critical entry point into how US Central Americans have been rendered invisible within both dominant US and Latina/o/x imaginaries of Latinidad and imaginaries of queerness. Establishing a more complex understanding of Donis and his body of work, I discuss his oeuvre through a relational, intersectional, and transnational lens that allows for a multilayered understanding of his positionality within the frameworks of Latina/o/x ethnoracial identity formation, Chicana/o/x cultural production, and US Central American cultural and historical specificity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fieldwork is crucial to advancing knowledge in archaeology and anthropology, but previous works suggests that between 64 and 68 percent of respondents experience sexual misconduct during fieldwork. Going forward, fieldwork must be made safe and inclusive. To achieve this, we must understand why sexual misconduct takes place during fieldwork. We surveyed an international sample of archaeologists and anthropologists (n=300) about their most recent fieldwork experience. We examine evidence for risk factors predicting sexual misconduct in fieldsites, and our findings suggest that length of fieldwork, presence and communication of policies and protocols, and the gender and sexuality of the individual are all significant. In particular, we find evidence for increased risk to nonmale and nonheterosexual individuals. We also gathered qualitative evidence from our respondents, who reported that in some cases they were discouraged from reporting and faced retaliation, they were dissatisfied with the handling of complaints, and fieldsite policies and protocols were not consistently or effectively implemented. Fieldwork can be a high‐risk environment for marginalized individuals to experience sexual misconduct, and when clear policies and procedures are lacking, it can also be a low‐risk environment for perpetrators in terms of consequences. To make fieldwork a safe environment for all, policies and protocols that mitigate the risk of sexual misconduct must be consistently implemented and properly communicated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contributing to the issue of complex relationship between social and cultural evolution, this paper aims to analyze repetitive patterns, or cycles, in the development of material culture. Our analysis focuses on culture change associated with sociopolitical and economic stasis. The proposed toy model describes the cyclical character of the quantitative and qualitative composition of archaeological assemblages, which include hierarchically organized cultural traits. Cycles sequentially process the stages of unification, diversity, and return to unification. This complex dynamic behavior is caused by the ratio between cultural traits' replication rate and the proportion of traits of the higher taxonomic order's related unit. Our approach identifies a shift from conformist to anti-conformist transmission, corresponding with open and closed phases in cultural evolution in respect to the introduction of innovations. The model also describes the dependence of a probability for horizontal transmission upon orders of taxonomic hierarchy during open phases. The obtained results are indicative for gradual cultural evolution at the low orders of taxonomic hierarchy and punctuated evolution at its high orders. The similarity of the model outcomes to the patters of material culture change reflecting societal transformations enables discussions around the uncertainty of explanation in archaeology and anthropology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Image-making is a nearly universal human behavior, yet the visual strategies and conventions to represent things in pictures vary greatly over time and space. In particular, pictorial styles can differ in their degree of figurativeness, varying from intersubjectively recognizable representations of things to very stylized and abstract forms. Are there any patterns to this variability, and what might its ecological causes be? Experimental studies have shown that demography and the structure of interaction of cultural groups can play a key role: the greater the degree of contact with other groups, the more recognizable and less abstract are the representations. Here we test this hypothesis on a real-world dataset for the first time. We constructed a balanced database of Indigenous Australian rock art motifs from both isolated and contact Aboriginal groups (those often in contact with other groups). We then ran a survey asking participants to judge the recognizability of the motifs and to provide interpretations. Results show that motifs from contact Aboriginal groups were more likely to be judged as inter-subjectively recognizable and also elicited more convergent descriptions than motifs from isolated groups. This is consistent with the idea that intergroup contact is likely to be an important factor in the cultural evolution of pictorial representation. We discuss the implications of these findings for the archaeology and anthropology of art, and the parallels with language evolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most entrenched binary oppositions in archaeology and anthropology has been the agriculturalist vs hunter-gatherer-fisher dichotomy fuelling a debate that this paper tackles from the bottom-up by seeking to reconstruct full past diets. The Japanese prehistoric Jōmon cultures survived without fully-developed agriculture for more than 10,000 years. Here we compile a comprehensive, holistic database of archaeobotanical and archaeozoological records from the two ends of the archipelago, the northernmost prefecture of Hokkaido and the southernmost island-chain of Ryukyu. The results suggest Jōmon diets varied far more geographically than they did over time, and likely cultivated taxa were important in both regions. This provides the basis for examining how fisher-hunter-gatherer diets can fulfil nutritional requirements from varied environments and were resilient in the face of environmental change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article sets out to highlight the way in which the phenomena of co-construction and territorial deconstruction make themselves apparent locally. We focused our study on Timiș County, core of the historical Banat region, for the reason that it is still an ethno-cultural mosaic linked to its cross-border space. We based our analysis on the exploitation of a specific bibliography and, especially, on a survey through questionnaire and interview. The regional socio-cultural identity of Banat was founded on the dialogue and intercultural co-construction that have been practised since 1718. The repeated processes of socio-spatial co-construction and deconstruction, due to the changes of sovereignty and limits, prove a remarkable identity resilience, Banat being a model of continuity of regional territoriality. In the current context of European integration and of regionalisation, these processes have been reactivated, with the ethnic minorities cultivating solidarity with their co-nationals over the border while also preserving solidarity with the present host country, Romania. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]