bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Aboriginal Warfare in the Protohistoric Southeast: An Alternative Perspective
Authors: Gibson Jon L.
Published: April 2006

Larson's hypothesis that southeastern warfare was instituted to increase the agricultural territories of demographically expanding Mississippian groups is not demonstrable for similar protohistoric chiefdoms in the Lower Mississippi Valley. Ethnohistorical data support an alternative perspective of warfare as a principal equilibrium-regulating institution through which cancellation of status deterioration, common in the peculiar ranked social structures of lower valley groups, might have been achieved.
A Comment on Eugene L. Sterud's “Changing Aims in Americanist Archaeology: A Citation Analysis of American Antiquity–1946-1975”
Authors: Cribb Roger L. D.
Published: April 2006

It is argued that the citation analysis of changing aims in archaeology by Sterud (1978) may not reflect the only or the most significant developments over the period studied. There is still considerable disagreement on the aims of archaeology, and there remains a tendency for archaeologists to split into competing schools. The interactions of these schools provide much of the impetus to growth and change in the discipline and are themselves potentially susceptible to citation analysis.
The Significance of Mammalian Faunas From Paleolithic Occupations in Cantabrian Spain
Authors: Freeman L. G.
Published: April 2006

An analysis of 77 collections of mammalian fauna from Paleolithic occupations in Cantabrian Spain reveals a number of possible trends in the adaptations of prehistoric human groups to past regional ecosystems. Throughout the history of occupation of Cantabria, from the Mousterian through the Solutrean, prehistoric man took a greater number of large game animals from forested biotopes, but probably acquired more total meat from fewer but larger prey taken in open country. Regular exploitation of the alpine zone and of dangerous forest creatures (Sus and felidae) begins only with the Aurignacian, when there is some evidence in the form of nocturnal or burrow-dwelling carnivores that self-acting hunting devices (traps, snares, for example) may have been employed. Lower Magdalenian faunas seem to indicate the specialized and intensive exploitation of a single species (red deer), while in the Azilian there is a return to patterns characteristic of the Mousterian-Solutrean periods. Site location seems to reflect exploitative strategy.
Bird Bones, Burials, and Bundles in Plains Archaeology
Authors: Ubelaker Douglas H. , Wedel Waldo R.
Published: April 2006

Plains archaeologists have usually devoted little attention to the bird remains that normally comprise a relatively minor portion of the yield from their excavations. Bird bones from several archaeological sites on the Missouri River are shown to have been purposefully and selectively modified by man. They exhibit a remarkable similarity to prepared bird skins and other ceremonial objects found in Omaha, Osage, Arikara, and other Plains Indian medicine bundles in various museum collections. The ethnographic specimens are believed to identify the archaeological remains as to function; conversely, the archaeological materials add important time perspectives to native use of the ritual items in museum collections and in the documentary record.
Of Shoe-Form Vessels and Ethnographic Analogy
Authors: Sisson Edward B.
Published: April 2006

D. M. Varner does not make a good case for a continuity in the function of the shoe-form vessels from Oaxaca. In the neighboring Tehuacan Valley during the Late Postclassic and Early Colonial periods, shoe-form vessels served as receptacles for cremated human remains.
Plant Husbandry in Prehistoric Eastern North America: New Evidence for Its Development
Authors: Chomko Stephen A. , Crawford Gary W.
Published: April 2006

Squash remains from three Late Archaic archaeological sites constitute the earliest evidence for cultigens in eastern North America. The new data indicate the tropical cultigen, squash, was introduced into the area prior to the domestication of native plant resources.
Chert Sources and Trace-Element Analysis
Authors: Luedtke Barbara E.
Published: April 2006

Neutron activation analysis of a large number of samples of midwestern cherts shows systematic variation of trace-element proportions within several chert formations. This chemical variation parallels variation in physical properties of the cherts and can also be found between different outcrops of the same chert. Surface alterations of artifacts after they have been deposited in soils also appear to change the chemical properties of the materials to some degree. All of these factors will complicate attempts to characterize chert sources and assign artifacts to them on the basis of their trace-element compositions. Nevertheless, adequate sampling and analysis of cherts should allow discrimination of sources in most areas, since the patterning of variation between cherts appears to be meaningful.
High-Precision Chemical Characterization of Major Obsidian Sources in Guatemala
Authors: Asaro F. , Michel H. V. , Sidrys R. , Stross F.
Published: April 2006

The important Mesoamerican obsidian source El Chayal has been carefully explored and sampled. Forty new source specimens have been subjected to neutron activation analysis, and the composition patterns are recorded and compared. The westernmost of the known Guatemalan obsidian sources, Tajamulco, has also been studied. Precise analytical data are also reported for the important Ixtepeque and Rio Pixcaya sources. In addition, the complete analytical data for a group of artifacts in Belize excavated by Norman Hammond are reported and compared with the source compositions. The establishment in the literature of a library or collection of precise and intercomparable composition data for the sources of this general region is suggested, and the present paper is offered as a first contribution toward this objective.
The “Twin Stelae” of Seibal
Authors: Sanders Frank J.
Published: April 2006

At least two sets of stelae at Seibal, Peten, Guatemala are “look-alikes,” and this resemblance may be empirically demonstrated by a series of measurements. The scant variation encountered between measurements of some of the features of the figures on the stelae suggest the use of templates or patterns as a traditional technique among Mayan sculptors during the Classic period.
Comments on the Pleistocene Age Assignment and Associations of a Human Burial from the Yuha Desert, California: A Rebuttal
Authors: Bischoff James L. , Childers W. Morlin , Shlemon Roy J.
Published: April 2006

Data and observations are presented which refute the contention of Payen et al. (1978) that soil stratigraphy, artifacts, and dating techniques of the Yuha burial preclude a Pleistocene age assignment.
Additional Evidence for Cannibalism in the Southwest: The Case of LA 4528
Authors: Flinn Lynn , Turner II Christy G. , Brew Alan
Published: April 2006

About A.D. 950, 11 persons of a small Anasazi settlement on Burnt Mesa north of the San Juan River, New Mexico, were butchered, mutilated and possibly roasted. The group's mixed remains were left strewn over a pithouse floor. Nearly all the bones were smashed and splintered. Some of them were burned, some show cut marks, and all exhibit greenstick breaks. Cannibalism is the most reasonable explanation for the patterned destruction. Starvation or necessity, rather than ritual or religious configuration, seem to best explain why the cannibalism occurred.
Escaping the Confines of Normative Thought: A Reevaluation of Puebloan Prehistory
Authors: Cordell Linda S. , Plog Fred
Published: April 2006

Our recent efforts in preparing syntheses of Puebloan prehistory suggest that most of the standard, normative generalizations are empirically false and that the conceptual framework traditionally employed to organize the archaeological data is inadequate and inappropriate. We show that the patterned variability manifest in the archaeological record is obscured by normative treatment. An approach to southwestern prehistory that is at once more faithful to the data and to processual, evolutionary anthropology is provided by describing the variable strategies that prehistoric groups used to cope with the continually changing natural and social environments in which they lived. We argue that some aspects of demographic, productive, and social organizational strategies are appropriate for treatment in syntheses of broad scope. We trace these strategies as they seem to have occurred in the northern Southwest from about A.D. 1 to the protohistoric period. In so doing, we find that successful strategies were those that facilitated the articulation of diversity. At some times productive specialization, organized redistributive exchange, and status differentiation were among the more important strategies.
Why and How to Improve Archaeology's Business Work
Authors: Cunningham Robert D.
Published: April 2006

The businesslike tasks associated with archaeological research continue to grow in complexity, in volume, and in the requirement of special skills. Good business work is increasingly necessary to facilitate funding and maximum scientific achievement. Some investigative centers, successful by any measure, demonstrate that improving the business work is practicable and profitable. Others have dubious prospects because they seem not to recognize (1) that archaeology generally must provide for business work at the investigative level, (2) that such work is far more demanding than it used to be, and (3) that the means of doing that work well are not hard to provide. This paper aims to illuminate these and two ancillary points and to encourage archaeologists to make needed improvements to benefit themselves and the profession.
A TL/ESR Study of the Hearth Feature at the Calico Archaeological Site, California
Authors: Bischoff James L. , Ikeya Motoji , Budinger Fred E.
Published: April 2006

TL/ESR measurements were made to test whether a semicircular arrangement of cobbles at the Calico site was a man-made hearth. Results of an earlier magnetic study of one of the cobbles suggested the inner portion had been heated to 360ºC. Such a temperature would destroy radiation-induced defects on the inner portions of the cobbles, which can then be measured by TL/ESR. TL/ESR signals of the inner and outer portions of four cobbles were measured and showed no significant differences. Moreover, all samples appeared to be at full TL and ESR saturation. Progressive heating of a control cobble taken from outside the hearth feature indicated that destruction of the TL/ESR signal occurs at 200ºC. Estimates of the dose rate at the site indicates that at least 400,000 years are required for an annealed rock to attain full TL/ESR saturation, a much longer time than the estimated 200,000-year age of the deposit.
The Architectural Analogue to Hopi Social Organization and Room Use, and Implications for Prehistoric Northern Southwestern Culture
Authors: Adams E. Charles
Published: April 2006

A living Hopi village is used to develop architectural analogues to room use and social organization in the Pueblo Southwest. These models are then tested against prehistoric sites. For interpretation of room use, factors such as room size, room location, and number and location of doors are shown to be significant. Room size criteria are found to segregate room use in prehistoric sites dating at least as early as A.D. 860. The boundaries of households and lineages are determined by room use and presence or absence of doors between rooms. This model is limited to large, multiple-story pueblos and was tested on Hawikuh, a seventeenth-century Zuni town. The advantages and limitations of using architectural data for such behavioral models are discussed.
A Truncated Initial Series from Xcalumkin
Authors: Closs Michael P.
Published: April 2006

The Maya text on an all-glyphic stone column now in the Museo del Camino Real in Hecelchakan, Campeche, Mexico, is deciphered. The inscription consists of an unusual truncated Initial Series with an associated Tun-Ahua statement. Arguments are given to justify assigning a Xcalumkin provenance to the monument. The Initial Series is only the third such record known from this site. Other epigraphic highlights include a rare head variant formation of the numeral for 16 by tandem heads for 6 and 10 and a new version of the head variant for 2. A summary of the chronological information available from the site of Xcalumkin is included.
Review of the Early Preceramic Complexes of the Santa Elena Peninsula, Ecuador
Authors: Stothert Karen E.
Published: April 2006

Of the four late Pleistocene and early post-Pleistocene lithic complexes defined by Edward P. Lanning, only one, the Las Vegas complex, is supported by existing evidence from the Santa Elena Peninsula of southwest Ecuador. The Achallan culture, previously defined by Stothert and assigned to the post-Las Vegas period, is now unsupported by satisfactory evidence.
The Use of Locational Analysis at Chisalin, Guatemala
Authors: Ward Charles F.
Published: April 2006

A critique of the methods of locational analysis used by Carmack and Weeks (1981) at the Maya site of Chisalin, Guatemala is presented. The applicability of the “nearest neighbor” statistic to this densely occupied hilltop site is questioned, as is its use to discriminate architectural groups.
Geoarchaeology of the Texas Southern High Plains: A Reply to Holliday and Johnson
Authors: Stafford Thomas W.
Published: April 2006

Geologic conclusions on Llano Estacado Late Quaternary stratigraphy are further quantified to strengthen previously published interpretations.
A Response to Raab and Klinger on Archaeological Site Significance
Authors: Barnes Mark R. , Briggs Alton K. , Neilsen Jerry J.
Published: April 2006

The authors of this response believe that problem-oriented significance for archaeological sites can be accommodated within the existing National Register criterion. In addition, the authors feel that closer relationships between the archaeological community, federal agencies, and the State Historic Preservation Officers will result in the preservation of archaeological sites.
Reply to Lowe and Barth
Authors: Salmon Merrilee H.
Published: April 2006

In this reply the author attempts to answer criticisms and to clarify some points made in "What Can Systems Theory Do for Archaeology?" (Salmon 1978). Particular emphasis is placed on the distinction between philosophical models of explanation and empirical models of phenomena. Some confusion has arisen because the term "systems model" has been applied to both types.
Toward Peopling the New World: A Possible Early Palaeolithic in Tohoku District, Japan
Authors: Reynolds T. E. G.
Published: April 2006

Japan is close to the land bridge route to the Americas; therefore, any evidence of early occupation there may be relevant to the peopling of the New World. In this report I briefly discuss recent discoveries from North Japan that are claimed to have an “Early,” i.e., pre-30,000 years B.P., date.
Historical Aspects of the Calaveras Skull Controversy
Authors: Dexter Ralph W.
Published: April 2006

In February 1866, workers found a human skull deep in a mine in Calaveras County, California, believed at first to be of Pliocene age. It was passed through several hands before reaching J. D. Whitney, State Geologist of California and Professor of Geology at Harvard University. While some scientists accepted it on face value, other scientists and the public press refused to believe it and even ridiculed the claim. Some believed it was a “plant,” while others had faith in the reports of the miners, which led to a long controversy. Apparently two skulls became confused in transmission from one person to another, but in the end they were identified as fossilized Indian skulls of modern type, and it was finally admitted that the one taken from the mine was “planted” as a joke.
Comments on Tainter and Lucas's “Epistemology of the Significance Concept”
Authors: Glassow Michael A.
Published: April 2006

Tainter and Lucas misunderstand my position toward site significance evaluation. The source of their confusion is discussed, and comments expanding upon their discussion of the significance concept and its use are presented.
Statistical Blight
Authors: Scheps Sheldon
Published: April 2006

A short-term remedy is proposed in the hope of curtailing the proliferation of statistical and inferential error rife within the published archaeological literature. First, a study by Isbell and Schreiber, one that violates rudimentary quantitative and qualitative analytical precepts, yet nevertheless was published in American Antiquity, is discussed in depth in order to exemplify the extent to which matters have deteriorated within the discipline. Then, this analysis, in conjunction with the various compendia of statistical abuse compiled by numerous professionals within the field, is invoked as support for an argument advocating structural changes in the peer review system. Perhaps such solutions could be implemented until previously proposed long-term solutions, such as David Thomas"s call for compulsory courses and certification examinations to satisfy academic degree requirements, are finally instituted.
Reflections: Fifty Years of Southwestern Archaeology
Authors: Haury Emil W.
Published: April 2006

The invitation to review a half century of archaeological procedures, events, and accomplishments in the American Southwest gave me an initial start—not because of the magnitude of the task—but because it brought home the reluctantly admitted fact that I have been around that long as a witness. In younger days the thought of being part of the process of looking into the past for five or six decades was as unfathomable as were some of the ages we were assigning to the remains under study. Even to an archaeologist, the concept of time operates on two levels: the first relates to the past societies of unknown name but of ages measured in centuries or millennia; and the second, intimately personal, infinitely shorter and far more real, is the span of one's own life.
The Society for American Archaeology: A View from across the Atlantic
Authors: Bray Warwick
Published: April 2006

My first reaction on receiving the Editor's invitation to write “something along the lines of ‘the SAA image abroad’ or ‘how others see us’” was, somewhat to my surprise, a feeling of guilt. For 16 years I have thought of myself as a subscriber to American Antiquity, but never consciously as a member of the SAA. I have never been to the SAA meeting (too big for my taste), usually forget to vote in elections for officers, habitually skip over the Business and Accounts section of the journal, and grudge every page and every dollar given over to such parochial matters as cultural resource management, how to placate the Indian lobby, or who owns the loot from shipwrecks off the U.S. coast.
Tikal Obsidian: Sources and Typology
Authors: Moholy-Nagy Hattula , Asaro Frank , Stross Fred H.
Published: April 2006

The obsidian industry of Classic period Tikal, Guatemala, is discussed with regard to geological source determinations and behavioral typology. The potential of these two approaches for cultural reconstruction is greatly extended when they can supplement each other. Recent source determinations of obsidian artifacts from Tikal indicate (1) a behavioral link between locally-produced prismatic blades of Highland Guatemalan stone and ceremonial incised obsidians and eccentrics, and (2) a Central Mexican origin for a seemingly large portion of Tikal's obsidian projectile points and knives.
Major Revisions in the Pleistocene Age Assignments for North American Human Skeletons by C-14 Accelerator Mass Spectrometry: None Older Than 11,000 C-14 Years B.P.
Authors: Taylor R. E. , Payen L. A. , Prior C. A. , Slota P. J. , Gillespie R. , Gowlett J. A. J. , Hedges R. E. M. , Jull A. J. T. , Zabel T. H. , Donahue D. J. , Berger R.
Published: April 2006

Radiocarbon analyses by accelerator mass spectrometric (AMS) techniques on organic fractions of human bone from various North American localities previously assigned ages ranging from about 70,000 to 15,000 years B.P. now suggest that none of these skeletons is older than 11,000 C-14 years B.P.
Duck Decoys from Lovelock Cave, Nevada, Dated by 14C Accelerator Mass Spectrometry
Authors: Tuohy Donald R. , Napton L. Kyle
Published: April 2006

Two of the 11 duck decoys found in Lovelock Cave, Nevada, over 60 years ago have recently been dated by the AMS technique. The resulting determinations are 2080 ± 330 B.P. and 2250 ± 230 B.P.
Prehispanic Saltmaking in Belize: A Reply to Valdez and Mock and to Marcus
Authors: MacKinnon J. Jefferson , Kepecs Susan M.
Published: April 2006

In response to the comments on our 1989 paper “Prehispanic Saltmaking in Belize: New Evidence,” we agree with Valdez and Mock that it is possible that some Prehispanic saltmaking sites in Belize may have been oriented toward the preservation of animal-protein resources, but caution against extending the interpretation of their NRL site to the status of generalization. While we may have misinterpreted Marcus, we wish to clarify that we never implied that salt production was a causal factor in Maya state formation.
Hermeneutics and Archaeology: On the Philosophy of Contextual Archaeology
Authors: Johnsen Harald , Olsen Bjørnar
Published: April 2006

In this paper we situate and discuss critically Ian Hodder's contextual archaeology in relation to a broader tradition of philosophical hermeneutics. We argue that Hodder's position comes close to the romantic conception of interpretation developed by German philosophers and historians. Central to this position is the equation of meaning and intention, context and origin, making historical understanding a transaction between the creative consciousness of the prehistoric agents and the receptive or reconstructive consciousness of the archaeologist. Drawing on Gadamer's critique of early hermeneutics we argue that Hodder's contextual archaeology disregards the dialectic between past and present horizons, a dialectic embedded in past material culture itself lying before us as present traces of a past.
Desert Ground Drawings in the Lower Santa Valley, North Coast of Peru
Authors: Wilson David J.
Published: April 2006

New data are presented on prehispanic ground drawings discovered and mapped during the 1979-1980 settlement-pattern research in the Santa Valley region, north coast of Peru. Among the drawings, which appear to date to the Early Suchimancillo/Gallinazo time period (ca. B.C./A.D. to A.D. 200), are a number of naturalistic figures-including humans, sierra-related llamas and condors, and a jungle-related (possible) cayman. These figures, and other lines of evidence such as rock-walled corral enclosures, suggest the existence of a strong ideological focus on sierra-related animals that probably reinforced intensive coast-sierra socioeconomic relations involving the use of llama pack trains.
Plains-Pueblo Interdependence and Human Diet at Pecos Pueblo, New Mexico
Authors: Spielmann Katherine A. , Schoeninger Margaret J. , Moore Katherine
Published: April 2006

Using bone-chemistry data, this project sought to assess the degree of dietary change that occurred among eastern border Pueblo populations due to prehistoric food exchange with hunter-gatherers on the Plains and to the arrival of Spanish colonists. In so doing we introduce a technique for dietary reconstruction that determines the range of diets compatible with bone-chemistry data from a particular population. The data are derived from samples of modern and archaeological plants and animals collected from the area surrounding Pecos Pueblo, and from archaeological humans recovered from Pecos itself. Bone-strontium concentrations were measured to monitor the relative proportions of meat to vegetables in the diet. Carbon and nitrogen stable-isotope ratios in food items and in bone collagen were measured to monitor the dependence on maize and bison meat. The results do not provide support for the hypothesis that bison replaced mule deer in the diet during the period of significant Plains-Pueblo trade. If bison, whose diets are relatively enriched in 13C had replaced mule deer, an increase in average δ13C values should have occurred. This, however, was not observed. A decrease in carbon-isotope values in the historic period suggests that either bison meat or maize or both decreased in importance in the Pecos diet and that dependence on wild plants increased.
Human-Plant Mutualism and Niche Expression in the Paleoethnobotanical Record: A Middle Woodland Example
Authors: Crites Gary D.
Published: April 2006

Analysis of Middle Woodland paleoethnobotanical assemblages from south-central Tennessee yielded evidence of variation and change in human and plant niche expression. A coevolutionary framework for understanding the mutually effective relations between human behavior and plant ecology and genetics is applied in an effort to explain why the Middle Woodland paleoethnobotanical record is expressed as it is. Focus upon a limited suite of taxa associated with secondary succession, cultivation, and domestication make clear the need to understand the ecology and morphology of taxa being considered, as well as the occupational history of the sites in question.
Comment on the Functions and Husbandry of Alpaca
Authors: Shimada Melody , Shimada Izumi
Published: April 2006

This brief note points out two problems in the comment by Topic et al.: the assumption that alpaca were valued only for their wool, and the questionable application of ethnographic and Inkaic husbandry models in culturally and environmentally different settings. Important to resolving these and other problems is improvement of our ability to differentiate alpaca and llama from preserved and sampled osteological and fiber remains.
The Dolores Archaeological Program: In Memoriam
Authors: Breternitz David A.
Published: April 2006

The Dolores Archaeological Project (DAP) encompassed a contract period from June 1978 through December 1985. Although investigations both preceded and postdated the contract period, the accomplishments, failures, positive and negative aspects of DAP, and certain comparisons with another major cultural-resource-mitigation project offer historical, methodological, and academic lessons that are instructive, particularly for future, long-term, federally (or nonfederally) financed cultural-resource-mitigation endeavors.
Toward Distinguishing Human and Raptor Patterning on Leporid Bones
Authors: Hockett Bryan Scott
Published: April 2006

Prehistoric Native Americans hunted leporids (cottontails and hares) for food, clothing, and to obtain raw material for the manufacture of bone tools such as awls. Leporids are also favorite prey of various carnivores and raptors, hence many archaeological sites may contain leporid bones that were deposited by both human and nonhuman activities. This paper provides data to distinguish specific agents and processes that affected leporid bones in archaeological sites. Human behavior tends to create hare tibia diaphysis cylinders, cut-marked bones, unidentifiable burned bone fragments, and assemblages with predominantly adult leporid bone specimens. In contrast, raptor behavior creates more cottontail tibia diaphysis cylinders, bones with beak and talon punctures on only one side, shearing damage principally to innominates and femora, and high frequencies of forelimb and juvenile bones when leporid bones are deposited mainly in raptor pellets.
Accelerator Radiocarbon Dates on Charcoal,
Shell, and Human Bone from the Del Mar Site,
California
Authors: Stafford Thomas W. , Tyson Rose A.
Published: April 2006

Accelerator radiocarbon dates on shell,
charcoal, and human bone samples are an indication
that human activity at the Del Mar site dates to
5000 B.P. and possibly from 7000 B.P. The shell
and charcoal fragments were dislocated
stratigraphically by extensive bioturbation and
provide evidence that accelerator dates on
extremely small samples should be used with
caution. Certain depositional environments will
require multiple dating within a site because
single-sample dating will not yield definitive
ages. Dating of individual amino acids from the
Del Mar sphenoid yielded an average age of 4900 ±
40 B.P. and conclusively establishes the age for
the Del Mar skull. The previously dated tibia was
found to be contaminated with exogenous amino
acids, thereby making its age uncertain.
New Evidence Concerning the Chronology and Paleoethnobotany of Salts Cave, Kentucky
Authors: Gardner Paul S.
Published: April 2006

Recent research has resolved problems surrounding the chronology and archeobotanical record of the Salts Cave Vestibule. Formerly, widely disparate radiocarbon dates made assignment of the site to either the Late Archaic or Early Woodland period equally problematic. Eight new radiocarbon determinations from Vestibule charcoal indicate an occupation in the first millennium B.C., confirming an assignment to the Early Woodland period. Previous analyses of carbonized plant remains from stratified deposits in the Vestibule indicated that the domestication of two native plants, sumpweed and sunflower, preceded the introduction of cucurbits into this part of the Eastern Woodlands. Data from other Midwestern sites have contradicted this generalization. A recent analysis of a second series of archeobotanical samples indicates that cucurbits were present at Salts Cave as early as the domesticated native annuals. These new data render the archeobotanical record of Salts Cave less anomalous than previously, and support the currently accepted reconstructions of prehistoric subsistence change in the Eastern Woodlands.
Floodplain Agriculture in the Driftless Area: A Reply to Overstreet
Authors: Gallagher James P. , Boszhardt Robert F. , Sasso Robert F. , Stevenson Katherine
Published: April 2006

Comments offered by Overstreet are based on a misunderstanding of the physiographic setting of the Sand Lake site and selective reading of the data. The Sand Lake ridged fields are situated in a floodplain in the Driftless Area of southwestern Wisconsin, a setting very different from that of upland ridged fields in glaciated eastern Wisconsin. Overstreet attempts to refute interpretations that we have already revised significantly. Current interpretations of the floodplain ridges suggest that, although surface drainage of the fields was probably not their primary function, periodic internal drainage of the soil would have been important.
A Comment on Hegmon and Trevathan's “Gender, Anatomical Knowledge, and Pottery Production”
Authors: LeBlanc Steven A.
Published: April 2006

The concern with the gender and role of Mimbres potters and painters is certainly an important one, and Hegmon and Trevathan (1996) do a good job of reviewing the various arguments about the identity of the bowl painters. Going beyond this review, they add another possible piece of evidence for the role of men in the production of Mimbres art. While I concur that the other arguments they present suggest some role for men in the painting activity, I do not believe that the particular new example they present adds any weight to this argument.
Bison Procurement in the Far West: A 2,100-Year-Old Kill Site on the Columbia Plateau
Authors: Chatters James C. , Campbell Sarah K. , Smith Grant D. , Minthorn Phillip E.
Published: April 2006

Bison bones are found in Columbia Plateau archaeological sites from throughout the Holocene, yet no information on people's tactics for procuring them has yet been reported. The discovery of the Tsulim Site, a 2,100-year-old bison kill near the Columbia River in central Washington, has provided the opportunity to investigate those tactics. Despite the deteriorated state of the evidence, analysis of stone artifacts, faunal remains, and site geology revealed that at least eight animals were killed in the apex of a parabolic dune during the early to mid-winter by hunters using both atlatl and bow. Local topography and meteorology make it most likely that the herd was encountered in a low paleochannel, driven northward between the limbs of the dune, up the steep channel wall, and into the kill area, a sort of inverted buffalo jump. Results not only illuminate the large-game hunting practices of the Plateau peoples, but also point out how much can be learned from disturbed, low-density scatters of debris that are often dismissed as insignificant.
Source Determination of White River Group Silicates from Two Archaeological Sites in the Great Plains
Authors: Hoard Robert J. , Bozell John R. , Holen Steven R. , Glascock Michael D. , Neff Hector , Elam J. Michael
Published: April 2006

High-quality cryptocrystalline silicates from the Oligocene-age White River Group of the central Great Plains (referred to here as White River Group Silicates [WRGS]) were widely used prehistorically for chipped-stone tools. There are three known source areas for WRGS: Flattop Butte in northeastern Colorado, Table Mountain in east central Wyoming, and the White River Badlands of South Dakota. Specimens from these sources are often visually indistinguishable, making it difficult to specify the source of WRGS from nonquarry archaeological sites. Using a quantitative method—neutron-activation analysis—these sources were differentiated. The sources of WRGS in two Central Plains archaeological sites also were determined using this technique. The results show that the technique has important implications for studies of prehistoric mobility and for the refinement of cultural-historical affiliation.
Woodstock Culture and the Question of Mississippian Emergence
Authors: Cobb Charles R. , Garrow Patrick H.
Published: April 2006

North American archaeologists see the study of the Emergent Mississippian period (ca. A.D. 800—1000) as critical for understanding the development of the Mississippian chiefdoms (ca. A.D. 1000—1500) of the American Southeast. Past research has frequently sought to explain that development in terms of generalized explanations, whose key variables become evident during the Emergent Mississippian period. Through an example in northwest Georgia, we argue that the Emergent Mississippian phenomenon is best understood by focusing on regional histories and multiscalar processes.
VIII. Congo Belge, Mongo, Basankusu
Authors: Sébastien Bonsange
Published: April 2006

Les sorciers, c.-à-d. des hommes accoutumés au mal appelé sorcellerie, s'adonnent à cette chose mauvaise. Ce sont des hommes comme nous; certains ne sont qu'une famille avec nous. Certains ont femmes et enfants comme nous.

On reconnaît le sorcier à ses yeux perçants. Il ne vous regarde que fixement. Il est très menteur et n'avoue pas même sa faute quand on l'a vu. Il est extrêmement insensible: même quand sa mère meurt, il n'en souffre aucune douleur. Dans la misère et dans la mort le sorcier ne pense qu'aux choses de sa sorcellerie. Les sorciers peuvent être hommes ou femmes. Mais une sorcière est plus puissante en sorcellerie qu'un sorcier. Les sorciers ensorcellent de beaucoup de manières: souvent avec des drogues. Ceux qui ont des drogues en ont des ensorcelantes et des désensorcelantes. Par les ensorcelantes ils tuent les hommes; par les désensorcelantes ils les désensorcellent.
The Third Cla’t Theme: Wild in the Corridors
Authors: Schubert Glendon
Published: April 2006

This essay is a preview of a forthcoming reader on contemporary American political science. I wrote it, at the solicitation of the co-editors of the volume, as a foreword — not, as Michael Haas so quaintly persists in calling it, as a “preface” (which is something that an author or editor himself writes). The conventional role of the forewordist is to associate his name or position with the volume that he introduces, and to proffer a few hyperbolic pats on the back (or head) of the author before tiptoeing sedately offstage. But my subject is not an innocuous book, and I thought it would be insulting to the editors — and most certainly, inconsistent with their principal theses — if I were to give such a foppish performance at the threshold of a work intended to catalyze a revolution in the behaviors of the members of the political science profession. Editors Haas and Kariel thought otherwise, however; and because their view of professional ethics does not require them to festoon their book with a controversial point of view with which they disagree, what was written as my foreword to their book appears instead in this alternative forum and in the form of a preview.
The Political Scientist Decides: An Examination of the 1969 APSA Ballot
Authors: Mueller John E.
Published: April 2006

I always vote for the man, not the party.

–Trad.

In its election for offices in 1969, the American Political Science Association, apparently for the first time in its rarely turbulent history, found the nominees of its Official Nominating Committee challenged by an insurgent group. In order to handle this unprecedented situation, it was decided at the annual meeting to carry out the election by mail ballot and the American Arbitration Association was engaged to administer the operation.

Ballots were mailed to the 13,061 members of the Association in October, 1969. Accompanying them were materials containing statements of belief and biographies for each of the candidates. The response rate was 64 percent.

The ballots carried the contestants indicated in Table 1. For each office the candidates are listed in the Table in the order of their vote result (they were listed in alphabetical order on the ballot) and for each candidate the group endorsements, as they were presented on the ballot, are indicated. Except for the group endorsements, no identifying information accompanied the names of the candidates on the ballots.
Opposition Views on the Proposed New Association Constitution: A Régime D'Assemblée for the APSA?—or: Wildavsky's Iron Law of Oligarchy
Authors: Rustow Dankwart A.
Published: April 2006

The Association's membership, assembled at Los Angeles last September, acted wisely in giving itself another year to reflect on the need (if any) for total constitutional revision. A new charter had been prepared in two versions, one by a committee headed by Professor Aaron Wildavsky, and the other by the Association's outgoing Council. So engrossed had each of these bodies been in its labors, and perhaps in the minor differences between the resulting documents, that their first publication, in the summer 1970 issue of PS, was delayed until just before the Annual Meeting. Nor was either version, as published, accompanied by any rationale or explanation. All anyone had to go by was the bare text of the two proposed charters—which most of us saw for the first time when we picked it up at the entrance of the ballroom of the Los Angeles Hilton, on the way to the session that was to choose between these two alternatives—or the status quo ante.

Professor Wildavsky still has not supplied the missing rationale for the document that he helped to father; and the 1969–70 Council allowed its term to expire without venturing any public justification of its further emendations. Meanwhile, however, two members of the Constitutional Revision Committee, Professors Hawkinson and Rosenblum, claiming “obviously … to speak only for themselves,” have published one modest argument in favor of the Committee's draft (see PS Winter 1971, pp. 6–18). Above all, the membership has now had time to study the two proposed charters and to compare them to the one under which, with gradual historical accretions and deletions, American political scientists have managed to operate for about seventy years. A close reading of the three texts is likely to make a conservative of even the most impetuous of our colleagues.
The Politics of American Political Scientists
Authors: Ladd Everett Carll , Lipset Seymour Martin
Published: April 2006

At the heart of the debates which have resounded around political science these past few years are charges and countercharges as to the “politics” of the contenders. Terms like conservative, liberal and radical are no longer reserved for analysis of positions in the larger society; they have become part of the regular vocabulary with which political scientists evaluate their colleagues. This increase in visible and self-conscious political dissensus extends, of course, throughout the university, but it has left a special mark on political science and the other social sciences where the issues and objects of political disagreement are so enmeshed with the regular subject matter of the discipline.

In spite of all of the discussion, and the now seemingly general recognition that the politics of members of the profession has a lot to do with its development and contributions, we still don't have very much firm information on the distribution of political views among the approximately 6,000 faculty members regularly engaged in the teaching of political science in the United States. There have been a number of studies, of course, of party identification and voting behavior, showing political science to be one of the most Democratic fields in academe.
On Book Reviews
Authors: Stegenga James A.
Published: April 2006

Like any nervous author, I anxiously awaited and carefully scrutinized each of the reviews of my book (The United Nations Force in Cyprus, Ohio State University Press, 1968). It's been a sobering experience reading the fifteen or so reviews that appeared. I suppose I should be pleased and hold my tongue, since nearly all the reviews are “favorable,” a few even embarrassingly gushy; but if my experience is typical, it seems to me that book reviewing as a form of intellectual communication is in such a poor state that we all ought to be concerned, if not alarmed. So I offer my personal observations and proposals to promote the time-honored purpose of stimulating the consideration and discussion that must precede reform.
Reviewing the Reviewers: Ideological Bias in the APSR Book Section
Authors: Parenti Michael
Published: April 2006

I would like to give attention to that portion of the American Political Science Review which is most read and least criticized, the book review section. My reading of APSR book reviews in recent years leads me to the following observations:

Most of the books selected for review adhere to the orthodox ideological values of today's political establishment. More importantly, these books almost invariably are reviewed by political scientists who share the same centrist ideological slant as the authors they are reviewing. In the reviews dealing with international relations, for instance, cold war terms like “totalitarianism”, “Castroism”, “subversion” and “Free World” are employed uncritically. Western capitalist nations are described as having “governments”, while socialist nations are said to have “regimes”, usually identified as being under the tutelage of one personage, hence: “Mao Tse-tung's regime”, and “Fidel Castro's Cuba”. The idea that popular sentiments and democratic in-puts might be part of the governance of countries like Cuba or China is not entertained.
Cumulativeness in the Social Sciences: Some Counter-Prescriptions
Authors: Singer J. David
Published: April 2006

In every social science, there tends to be a recurrent and cyclical preoccupation with the lack of cumulativeness. Some attribute this to the familiar “absence of theory,” and lay it at the doorstep of “barefooted empiricism.” Others might see the culprit lurking in the conceptual morass that often passes for theory, and would suggest that grand schemata that are not — and usually cannot — be tested will hardly make for greater cumulativeness.

There seems to be more than a germ of truth in both of these suspicions, but let me suggest a third possible source of our disappointment. I refer to certain norms and practices found among both the theorizers and the empiricists: those folkways that we pick up in college and graduate school, and are seldom able to shake in the postdoctoral years. On the assumption that an awareness of them and their implications may lead to their gradual extinction, I itemize here a few of what may be our less attractive foibles. While some of them may be peculiar to the field of world politics, most seem to be found all across the discipline.
A Report of the APSA Confidentiality in Social Science Research Data Project
Authors: Carroll James D. , Knerr Charles R.
Published: April 2006

Does a researcher have a legal right not to reveal the identity of sources or subjects and not to reveal information obtained in confidence in the course of research, when asked to do so by a grand jury or other investigatory body? Should a researcher have such a right? Under what circumstances, if any, does a researcher have an ethical obligation to promise a source of information not to reveal the identity of the source and the content of what is learned? What position should the various social science associations take, if any, on questions of the ethical responsibilities and legal rights of researchers concerning the confidentiality of research sources and information?

The above questions, among others, are believed to be of fundamental importance to the social science community. Under the initiative of the American Political Science Association, a research project was conceived to investigate these questions and others, and to recommend alternative solutions. A grant was secured from the Russell-Sage Foundation and co-sponsorship arranged through the Consortium of Social Science Associations, of the various national social science associations, including the American Anthropological Association, the American Economic Association, the American Historical Association, the APSA, the American Psychological Association, the American Sociological Association, the Association of American Law Schools, and the Association of American Geographers. In addition, liaison relationships were established with the American Statistical Association, the American Association for Public Opinion Research, the American Psychiatric Association, and the Oral History Association.
How to Succeed in Political Science by Being Very Trying: A Methodological Sampler
Authors: Sigelman Lee
Published: April 2006

Daily we are bombarded by advice on how to succeed in political science. We are told what to read—everybody in Philadelphia readsWorld Politics, conclude media watchers Giles and Wright. We are told how to speak—practice phrases like “latent functional isomorphism” and “quasi-longitudinal typology,” concludes politico-linguist Betty Zisk, and success will be ours. We are even told where to dine—Tadich's or Sam's for fish in San Francisco, decrees gastronomical heavyweight Richard Brody.

Impeccable reading habits, a finely-honed vocabulary, and proper nutrition notwithstanding, we are in imminent danger of failure as political scientists unless we are able to establish our bona fides as data analysts. This requires that we master some canons of research methodology. Unfortunately, these methodological strictures have yet to be systematically codified. By presenting some basics of proper research methodology, by discussing some more sophisticated techniques (e.g., the Multiplicative N-Extender, the Levitating Measure Raiser), and by cataloguing some even more advanced routines (e.g., the Spontaneous Phytogeny Recapitulator, the Deviant Data Bender), the present exploratory study takes a tentative first step in the direction of a more systematic political science.