Ideology,gender, and resistance: A critical analysis of Godelier's theory of ideology

Richard Eves is currently completing an Honours Degree in Anthropology at the University of Adelaide, Australia.     

The prehistory of the Arabian peninsula: deserts, dispersals, and demography

As a geographic connection between Africa and the rest of Eurasia, the Arabian Peninsula occupies a central position in elucidating hominin evolution and dispersals. Arabia has been characterized by extreme environmental fluctuation in the Quaternary, with profound evolutionary and demographic consequences. Despite the importance of the region, Arabia remains understudied. Recent years, however, have seen major developments in environmental studies and archeology, revealing that the region contains important records that should play a significant role in future paleoanthropological narratives.(1-3) The emerging picture of Arabia suggests that numerous dispersals of hominin populations into the region occurred. Populations subsequently followed autochthonous trajectories, creating a distinctive regional archeological record. Debates continue on the respective roles of regional hominin extinctions and population continuity, with the latter suggesting adaptation to arid conditions.     

Overview of central Mexican prehistory: morphostratigraphy,chronostratigraphy, biostratigraphy

New research indicates an ice-free corridor may have been open for 20,000 years in North America and people could have moved southward even at Last Glacial Maximum. Morphostratigraphic, chronostratigraphic, biostratigraphic and archeological evidence from Central Mexico at Valsequillo, Texcoco/Tequixquiac and Chapala supports this view.     

Chemistry and biology of the South Winterbourne, Dorset, England

Changes in discharge and chemical composition are related to biological and physical conditions at eight sites on the South Winterbourne from the source to the confluence with the River Frome. The results show a complex pattern of discharge with nitrate peaks at high discharge values. Mean phosphate values varied from 34·2 μg l^?1 (at the source) to 164·6 μg l^?1. The Winterbourne has a rich flora of algae and higher plants of which the annual sequence is influenced by the flow regime and the effects of human interference by cutting and removal of plants and addition of nutrients. The fauna has much in common with permanent chalk streams but temporary flow conditions favour insects having prolonged resting stages or those which are able to colonize quickly from other areas when flow commences. Many non-insect groups particularly snails, are able to withstand relatively long dry periods.     

History, protohistory and prehistory of the Arabidopsis thaliana chromosome complement

We propose an evolutionary scenario that could have shaped the modern Arabidopsis thaliana genome, which began with the reduction in chromosome number from n=8 to n=5 in the past 4 million to 5 million years as a result of chromosome fusion. The scenario also includes three ancient polyploidizations: the most recent occurred in an early Brassicaceae with n=4 chromosomes 24 million to 40 million years ago. The two other polyploidizations occurred after the emergence of the Eudicots and the Angiosperms, respectively. Angiosperm evolution includes recurrent cycles of genome duplication and gene and chromosome reorganizations.     

Human prehistory: the message from linkage disequilibrium

The vast amount of information being gathered about human DNA sequence variation raises the question of what these data can tell us about events in our past. A new way has been found by which patterns of linkage disequilibrium can be used to detect the effects of natural selection in human prehistory.     

Experimental wet heath translocation in Dorset, England

Heathland has become fragmented throughout its European range with many countries losing 60-90% of their heathland area during the 20th century. A small, isolated area of wet heathland within permitted ball clay workings in Dorset (England) was translocated in October 1993 to an engineered receptor cell fed by groundwater and direct precipitation in order to mitigate the otherwise total loss of the wet heath. The aims were to rescue the wet heathland and to re-establish a community type similar to the wet heath that originally occurred at the donor site prior to the recent development of vegetation communities and birch colonisation associated with drier conditions. Vegetation monitoring over 12 years up to 2005 indicated that the experimental translocation successfully fulfilled the aims for a period of 7 years when the hydrological regime of the receptor site was actively managed. There was development of a mosaic of wet heath and mire vegetation community types including Sphagnum lawns and open bog pools. However, when active management ceased, the receptor site became drier and species were lost. Multivariate analysis revealed a trajectory of progressive rapid chronological change during 1994 and 1995 followed by a period of relative stability between 1996 and 2000 which coincided with greater species density. Subsequently up to 2005, the plant community became less species-rich and the plant community reverted to a species structure similar to that which occurred in 1994/1995. The importance of hydrological regime for plant community structure was tested using fixed-quadrat data and the water level measurements made in the period 1995-1998. Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA) multivariate analysis revealed a hydrological gradient with a significant seasonal effect of water table depth in the first half of the year and close association of the least wet quadrat location and non-mire species. Overall, the results support the use of translocation as a means of rescuing wet heath habitat which would otherwise be lost due to change in land use. There is a risk of failure when translocating a complex ecosystem such as wet heath but ecological engineering provides an insight into defining the risk. Our results demonstrated that an ecologically acceptable outcome for a wet heath translocation can be achieved with careful design and implementation and sensitive management of the receptor site. However, it is essential to secure long-term hydrological and vegetation management in order to provide a sustainable outcome for long-term survival of a target wet heath community.     

Population and prehistory III: Food-dependent demography in variable environments

The population dynamics of preindustrial societies depend intimately on their surroundings, and food is a primary means through which environment influences population size and individual well-being. Food production requires labor; thus, dependence of survival and fertility on food involves dependence of a population’s future on its current state. We use a perturbation approach to analyze the effects of random environmental variation on this nonlinear, age-structured system. We show that in expanding populations, direct environmental effects dominate induced population fluctuations, so environmental variability has little effect on mean hunger levels, although it does decrease population growth. The growth rate determines the time until population is limited by space. This limitation introduces a tradeoff between population density and well-being, so population effects become more important than the direct effects of the environment: environmental fluctuation increases mortality, releasing density dependence and raising average well-being for survivors. We discuss the social implications of these findings for the long-term fate of populations as they transition from expansion into limitation, given that conditions leading to high well-being during growth depress well-being during limitation.     

Introduction: gender,migration and the media

Abstract

Mediated representations of gender, ethnicity and migration play an increasingly important role in the way these categories are understood in the public sphere and the private realm. As media often intervene in processes of individual and institutional communication, they provide frameworks for the production and consumption of representations of these categories. Thus media – in their production, representations and consumption – need to be analysed, not only as reflections as pre-existing socio-political realities, but also as constitutive elements in the production of meanings of the self and the Other. This special issue includes a number of articles that examine the articulations of gendered ethnic identities and of gendered citizenship as these are shaped in media production, media representations and media consumption.     

The upstream migratory behaviour of salmonids in the River Frome, Dorset

Data on the migratory behaviour of salmonids were collected at a gauging weir by means of a restivity fish-counter which triggered a motor-driven 35 mm still camera to provide photographic records of passing fish. A clear bimodal seasonal pattern of movement was observed in three consecutive years with peaks during June–August and October–December. Daily variations in the rate of movement could not be correlated with changes in discharge or temperature. Salmonids tended to move at discharges lower than those generally available. This contrasts with other published work and was attributed to the more equitable flow-pattern of chalk rivers. There was no optimal temperature associated with movements. Some evidence suggested that the largest fish moved earlier in the year but this was not marked. In clear water most movement occurred during the hours of darkness but during floods, when the river was turbid, the diurnal pattern tended to be reversed with greatest movement during the hours of daylight. Most fish negotiated the weir close to the bottom, well below mean velocity, and took a central path through the flume. Although analysis of upstream migratory behaviour was hindered by the lack of data on the numbers of fish available below the counting point it was concluded that the basic pattern of migration is established by time (season). Changes in discharge, light intensity and other parameters may then play a secondary role in modifying the details of the pattern but attention is drawn to records of movements in regulated flows where a remarkably constant pattern is shown from year to year.     

Drugs and the Single Woman: Pharmacy,Fashion, Desire,and Destitution in India

A cultural imaginary identified as “fashion” links single women with problems of desire in contemporary India, setting the stakes not only for independent living, but also for the ways distresses may be read and treated. From celebrity cases to films to clinical practices oriented around pharmaceuticals, the mechanisms of this imaginary locate female personhood at a series of critical junctures or “hinges,” from pharmaceuticals to drugs of vice, from desire to expressions of disorder, and from singularity or independence to destitution. In each of these turns, as psychiatrists read female bodies for signs of affliction and media portray counter trajectories of aspiration and downfall, certain realities are shielded from consideration, including sexual violence in intimate settings.     

Postspawning movements and habitat selection of dace in the River Frome, Dorset, southern England

Recently spent adult dace Leuciscus leuciscus were captured from a known spawning site, radio-tagged and released. Post-release movements were monitored, and the habitat characteristics of the areas selected were recorded. Visual observations and electrofishing showed that all radio-tagged fish were associated with other, untagged, adult dace. After spawning, dace occupied slow-flowing shaded sites out of the main river channel. Within these areas, the fish were situated in the deepest and slowest-flowing positions available. Possible reasons for the observed postspawning behaviour and habitat selection are discussed. ? 1998 The Fisheries Society of the British Isles     

Observations on the biology of the perch, Perca fluviatilis, in the River Stour, Dorset

SUMMARY. Opercular bones from 323 perch from the River Stour were used for age and back-calculated growth determinations. Annuli were formed during May at the beginning of the growth period. Growth was minimal from October to April. Female perch grew faster than males, and the growth rates of both sexes were higher than those observed in most other European waters. Spawning occurred during late April and early May; male gonads began development in August and had attained their maximum weight in September, but the ovaries developed gradually from August until April. Immature perch had an annual cycle of condition with a maximum in June-July and a minimum in December-January. The condition of mature males and females was affected by the gonad cycle. The fecundity of Stour perch is expressed by the formula: log egg number = 2.40 log length (mm) - 1.34.
Approximately 25% of males were mature at age I and all were mature at age II, whereas most females did not spawn until age III. Ephemeroptera nymphs and minnow fry constituted the bulk of the diet of 0-group perch; Ephemeroptera nymphs, minnow fry and Corixidae were the most numerous items in I group perch, whereas older perch contained Corixidae and a wider range of fish prey species, although minnows were the most numerous of these.