Ethics, Economics, and Aids in Africa

AIDS in the Twenty-First Century: Disease and Globalization , by Tony Barnett and Alan Whiteside. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. 2002. 416 pp. US$19.95 (paperback)
The Moral Economy of AIDS in South Africa , by Nicoli Nattrass. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. 2004. 222 pp. US$30.00 (paperback)     

Witchcraft, Violence, and Democracy in South Africa

Witchcraft, Violence, and Democracy in South Africa . Adam Ashforth. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005. 396 pp.     

Women, Horticulture, and Society in Sub-Saharan Africa

Considerable power was probably available to either sex earlier in human history. Males were largely concerned with the prestige sphere based on control of special goods usually involving mobility and risk taking. Females were largely concerned with the subsistence sphere. Their access to power is not based on this economic function but on their generative powers. In small-scale early societies both male and female spheres were probably very important in the social and political life of the group. Historically, as scarcity of material resources began to develop and as local units increased in size, male interest shifted to the now scarcer land. With their relatively greater mobility than females, males could deal with larger political units with greater ease. This shift was not in conflict with any other male roles, whereas for females such a shift was in conflict with their generative function.     

Risk, Uncertainty, and Violence in Eastern Africa

Previous research on warfare in a worldwide sample of societies by Ember and Ember (Journal of Conflict Resolution, 36, 242–262, 1992a) found a strong relationship between resource unpredictability (particularly food scarcity caused by natural disasters) in nonstate, nonpacified societies and overall warfare frequency. Focusing on eastern Africa, a region frequently plagued with subsistence uncertainty as well as violence, this paper explores the relationships between resource problems, including resource unpredictability, chronic scarcity, and warfare frequencies. It also examines whether resource scarcity predicts more resource-taking in land, movable property, and people, as well as the commission of atrocities. Results support previous worldwide results regarding the relationship between resource unpredictability and warfare frequency. Results regarding resource-taking and atrocities are more nuanced and complex. In almost all findings, relationships are generally in opposite directions in nonstate and state societies. In post-hoc analyses, atrocities are significantly more likely to be committed in states than in nonstates.     

The chewing brush,especially in Africa

Lætadianism—the religious revival as it appeared in Northern Norway in the second half of the last century—is analyzed as a form of symbolic opposition (Schwimmer 1972) from the Sámi and the Kvens against the Norwegian policy of cultural and economic integration. The expansion of Norwegian administration and economy from the middle of the 19th century, established new status‐sets and fields of interaction within agriculture, school‐system and health service. Events and interaction within each of these fields created circumstances for what took place in the actor's other relationship and this dynamic is thus analysed as implication systems (Grenhaug 1978).

All interaction with Norwegian society was built upon Norwegian statuses and values and the Sámi and Kvens established a new definition of the situation by reversing the Norwegian standards through the medium of Christianity. Their material poverty was converted into spiritual wealth and thus a different inter‐ethnic context of interaction surfaced. This new opportunity situation (Barth 1966) made it possible to reject the Norwegian society which earlier had rejected them.     

The genusDaphnia in Cameroon,West Africa

Three species of the genusDaphnia are recorded from Cameroon.Daphnia obtusa was found in a single lake out of 37 sampled.Daphnia laevis was found in the same lake asD. obtusa and in two other lakes, whileD. rosea was found in three other lakes. All the lakes were at altitudes over 1 000 m. The records can be interpreted either as altitudinal survivals of continually dispersing species, or as relicts in an area whereDaphnia is usually very rare or absent.     

Palatal rugae in Swazi, southern Africa

In a sample of Swazi (47 males and 70 females) the palatal rugae were studied and the results compared with those in the literature. The rugae are generally strong and show considerable complexity. Strength of ridges is associated with arch height, which suggests common factors in development.     

Bushman rock shelter,Origstad, Eastern Transvaal,South Africa

Absolute dating of several stratigraphic levels position an infant's mandible relatively to about 29,500 years ago. This mandible may represent the infant stage of an early Negroid from of Homo sapiens afer and was probably associated with cultural material belonging to the transition of the Middle Stone Age to the Late Stone Age.     

Late Jurassic Mammals from Tendaguru, Tanzania, East Africa

Records of Mesozoic mammals are extremely rare in Africa. The only previous record from the Upper Jurassic of Africa is a fragmentary mandible without teeth of Brancatherulum tendagurense. Here I report the discovery of two new mammals from the Upper Jurassic of Tendaguru, Tanzania. The fossils were recovered from the Middle Saurian Bed of the Tendaguru Series. A lower molar of a triconodontid mammal is described as Tendagurodon janenschi gen. et sp. nov., and a fragmentary dentary of a eupantothere as Tendagurutherium dietrichi gen. et sp. nov. The eupantothere in particular contributes to documenting the evolution of mammals during the Mesozoic. The posterior portion of the mandible of Tendagurutherium dietrichi gen. et sp. nov. shows that the angular (tympanic) bone was not yet completely separated from the dentary, a previously undocumented stage of eupantotherian middle ear evolution.