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Contents
The Moral Economy of Water Reexamined: Reciprocity, Water Insecurity, and Urban Survival in Cochabamba, BoliviaAmber Wutich KEY WORDS: Reciprocity, Water insecurity, Water scarcity, Moral economy, Self-help, Self- insurance, Vulnerability, Bolivia ABSTRACT: Recent debates have questioned whether reciprocity constitutes a threatened form of social insurance or a nascent and promising pathway toward development. This debate is of vital importance for understanding how the urban poor survive in the face of subsistence challenges that are likely to intensify in the future. In this article, I present an in-depth analysis of reciprocal exchanges of water in a water-scarce squatter settlement in Cochabamba, Bolivia. Drawing on qualitative and quantitative analyses, I demonstrate (1) how reciprocal exchanges of water are conducted in an urban setting; (2) that these water exchanges conform to a social insurance model of reciprocity; and (3) that such reciprocal exchanges are consistent with the moral economy of water documented elsewhere in the Andes. I conclude that reciprocity, while capable of safeguarding subsistence, is not a solution for people whose survival is continually threatened by larger political and economic forces that create water insecurity, resource inequity, and social exclusion among the urban poor. Local Perceptions of “Quality of Life” in Rural China: Implications for Anthropology and Participatory DevelopmentBryan Tilt KEY WORDS: Development anthropology, International development, Participation, Quality of life, Social indicators, China ABSTRACT: One of the main challenges faced by anthropologists and practitioners who work in international development is the identification of locally appropriate objectives and outcomes for development projects. In recent years, improving the quality of life of target populations has emerged as a key objective of many development agencies, but there is little consensus about how best to define and operationalize this concept. This paper applies anthropological research methods to understand a local population’s definitions of quality of life in one rapidly developing township in rural Sichuan, China. The paper also examines the patterning of attitudes about quality of life across occupational groups in the study community. Data are drawn from ethnographic interviews and quantitative surveys. Findings suggest that villagers’ definitions of quality of life consist of a range of themes related to both material living standards and subjective measures. Occupational groups differ markedly in their quality-of-life ratings, a pattern that is in line with the widening economic disparities in rural communities throughout China as the nation’s economy undergoes liberal economic reforms. Implications for anthropological theory and practice, and for the practice of participatory development, are also discussed. On the Question of Short-Term Neanderthal Site Occupations: Payre, France (MIS 8-7), and Taubach/Weimar, Germany (MIS 5)Marie-Hélène Moncel and Florent Rivals KEY WORDS: Middle Paleolithic, Neanderthal behavior, Occupation duration, Payre, Taubach, Weimar ABSTRACT: We analyze and compare the evidence of human behavior from two Middle Paleolithic localities with short-term (seasonal) occupations: Payre in France (level F, correlated to MIS 8-7) and Taubach in Germany (correlated to MIS 5e). We focus on the lithic assemblages from these occupation levels. Our analysis takes the density of lithic material, technological choices, and the typological composition of the assemblages in the two localities into account. In light of previously published models, the results are partially consistent with various types of land-use as supported by analysis of the lithic assemblages. Our results confirm that Neanderthals were able to develop diverse behaviors in different locations. Although flexible and highly adaptable among the different seasons and landscapes of Western Europe, different types of short occupations may indicate the same kinds of technical and typological strategies. The Use of Mollusc Shells as Tools by Coastal Human Groups: The Contribution of Ethnographical Studies to Research on Mesolithic and Early Neolithic Technologies in Northern SpainDavid Cuenca Solana and Igor Gutiérrez Zugasti and KEY WORDS: Shell tools, Ethnography, Technology, Archaeomalacology, Functional analysis, Hunter-gatherers ABSTRACT: In European archaeology, the malacological remains recovered in archaeological contexts have traditionally been considered almost exclusively as food waste. In other cases, this view has been broadened in order to study these remains as an expression of aspects of the social organization of the human groups, based on the use of perforated shells as objects of personal ornamentation. However, the study of these natural resources as raw materials for the manufacture of tools aimed at satisfying the production needs of the human groups has been very limited. This little-developed aspect of research is at variance with the abundant ethnographic information from many different periods and geographical settings showing that malacological resources were used in many complex and varied ways. This paper is an attempt at compiling a small part of this ethnographic information—a contribution which, through its critical application to the archaeological record, is of interest in establishing a methodology for studying this type of evidence. In the specific case of northern Spain, information from ethnographic studies has been used to develop an appropriate methodology with which to approach the analysis of this kind of archaeological evidence, as recently documented for the first time at the classic site of Santimamiñe (Basque Country). At the same time, the documentation of shell tools could provide an explanation for the scarcity of “traditional technologies” that characterizes many Mesolithic and early Neolithic sites in northern Spain. Book ReviewsJ. M. Adovasio: NESAT X: The North European Symposium for Archaeological Textiles X, Eva Andersson Strand, Margarita Gleba, Ulla Mannering, Cherine Munkholt, and Maj Ringgaard, eds. Lawrence G. Straus: En el Centenario de la Cueva de El Castillo: El Ocaso de los Neandertales, Victoria Cabrera†, Federico Bernaldo de Quirós, and José Manuel Maíllo, eds. Lawrence G. Straus: Los Hombres Mesolíticos de la Cueva de La Braña-Arintero (Valdelugueros, León). Julio M. Vidal Encinas and Maria Encina Prada Marcos, eds. Sang-Hee Lee: The Bone Readers: Science and Politics in Human Origins Research, Claudio Tuniz, Richard Gillespie, and Cheryl Jones, eds. Lane F. Fargher: Polities and Power: Archaeological Perspectives on the Landscapes of Early States, Steven E. Falconer and Charles L. Redman, eds. Justin Lev-Tov: Animal Husbandry in Ancient Israel: A Zooarchaeological Perspective on Livestock Management and Economic Strategies, by Aharon Sasson Alan H. Simmons: Art and Society in Cyprus from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age, by Joanna S. Smith Steven A. Rosen: Metal, Nomads and Culture Contact: The Middle East and North Africa, by Nils Anfinset Jonathan Haas: Warfare in Cultural Context: Practice, Agency, and the Archaeology of Warfare, Axel E. Nielsen and William Walker, eds. Kenneth Hirth: Origins of the Ñuu: Archaeology in the Mixteca Alta, Mexico, by Stephen A. Kowalewski, Andrew K. Ballansky, Laura R. Stiver Walsh, Thomas J. Pluckhahn, John F. Chamblee, Verónica Pérez Rodríguez, Verenice Y. Heredia Espinoza, and Charlotte A. Smith Elizabeth Hill Boone: Lord Eight Wind of Suchixtlan and the Heroes of Ancient Oaxaca: Reading History in the Codex Zouche-Nuttall, by Robert Lloyd Williams Maxine Oland: Maya Worldviews at Conquest, Leslie G. Cecil and Timothy W. Pugh, eds. Patricia A. McAnany: The Classic Maya, by Stephen D. Houston and Takeshi Inomata Apen Ruiz Martinez: Yucatán through Her Eyes: Alice Dixon Le Plongeon, Writer and Expeditionary Photographer, by Lawrence Gustave Desmond Don Fowler: Prehistory, Personality, and Place: Emil W. Haury and the Mogollon Controversy, by Jefferson Reid and Stephanie Whittlesey Richard O. Clemmer: Journeys West: Jane and Julian Steward and Their Guides, by Virginia Kerns Ann F. Ramenofsky: From Santa Elena to St. Augustine: Indigenous Ceramic Variability (AD 1400–1700), Kathleen Deagan and David Hurst Thomas, eds Pam J. Crabtree: Mission and Pueblo of Santa Catalina de Guale, St. Catherines Island, Georgia: A Comparative Zooarchaeological Analysis, by Elizabeth J. Reitz, Barnet Pavao-Zuckerman, Daniel C. Weinand, and Gwynneth A. Duncan Shannon Novak: Excavating Nauvoo: The Mormons and the Rise of Historical Archaeology in America, by Benjamin C. Pykles David H. Price: Waging War, Making Peace: Reparations and Human Rights, Barbara Rose Johnston and Susan Slyomovics, eds. Ahmet Yukleyen: Stolen Honor: Stigmatizing Muslim Men in Berlin, by Katherine Pratt Ewing Michael L. Trujillo: Designs for an Anthropology of the Contemporary, by Paul Rabinow, George E. Marcus, James D. Faubion, and Tobias Rees Sarah Franklin: European Kinship in the Age of Biotechnology, Jeanette Edwards and Carles Salazar, eds. Michelle C. Johnson: Empathy and Rage: Female Genital Mutilation in African Literature, Tobe Levin and Augustine H. Asaah, eds. Dennis B. McGilvray: Tamil Oratory and the Dravidian Aesthetic: Democratic Practice in South India, by Bernard Bate Patrick Peebles: Dance and the Nation: Performance, Ritual and Politics in Sri Lanka, by Susan A. Reed Les Field: The Making of a Human Bomb: An Ethnography of Palestinian Resistance, by Nasser Abufarha Peter M. Whiteley: William Fenton: Selected Writings, by William N. Fenton. William A. Starna and Jack Campisi, eds. Brigittine M. French: Mayas in Postwar Guatemala: “Harvest of Violence” Revisited, Walter E. Little and Timothy J. Smith, eds. Anne Warren Johnson: Forjando Patria Pro-Nacionalismo (Forging a Nation), by Manuel Gamio Joanne Rappaport: The Four Seasons of the U’wa: A Chibcha Ritual Ecology in the Colombian Andes, by Ann Osborn Suzanne Oakdale: The Occult Life of Things: Native Amazonian Theories of Materiality and Personhood, Fernando Santos-Granero, ed. Nicole Coffey Kellett: Ethnic Entrepreneurs: Identity and Development Politics in Latin America, by Monica C. DeHart Ana Mariella Bacigalupo: Ritual and Remembrance in the Ecuadorian Andes,by Rachel Corr Louise Burkhart: The Power of Song: Music and Dance in the Mission Communities of Northern New Spain, 1590–1810, by Kristin Dutcher Mann Kathleen Fine-Dare: We Will Dance Our Truth: Yaqui History in Yoeme Performances, by David Delgado Shorter Vincent Crapanzano: Toward an Anthropology of the Will, Keith M. Murphy and C. Jason Throop, eds. Jane B. Lancaster: Life Histories of the Dobe !Kung: Food, Fatness, and Well-being over the Life-span, by Nancy Howell T. J. Ferguson: Indigenous Methodologies: Characteristics, Conversations, and Contexts, by Margaret Kovach Alex Mesoudi: Darwinian Sociocultural Evolution: Solutions to Dilemmas in Cultural and Social Theory, by Marion Blute George J. Armelagos: Paleonutrition, by Mark Q. Sutton, Kristin D. Sobolik, and Jill K. Gardner |
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