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In this article, I examine the statements and actions of two key informants, both of whom direct welfare programs in a district of the former East Berlin. I argue that this evidence points to a particular modality of political rationalization, which I dub organizational discourse. The entanglement of organizational discourse and governmentality are explored, as is the place of organizational discourse within both the liberal welfare state and the bygone state socialist regime.

Use-value and exchange-value are pragmatic features of commodity exchange which are apparent from the careful study of specific interactions, as well as from the viewpoint of economic processes at large. While Marx's well-known attempt to describe this pair of concepts in Capital (2001) takes the latter tack, I attempt here to take the formeri.e., to approach the composition of the commodity from the point of view of the pragmatics of interaction. In doing so, I offer a semiotic model of the valuation of commodities which differs from accounts given by Kockelman (2006) and Agha (2011). The ethnographic object at stake in this essay is StreetWise, a Chicago street newspaper said to have empowering effects on its vendors.

Human sacrifice in the Inca Empire at times took the form of the capacocha, a sacrificial rite involving the most beautiful children in the empire. In this study, we investigate a possible capacocha at the pre-Columbian site of Choquepukio in the Cuzco Valley of Peru. During excavations at Choquepukio in 2004, seven children (aged 3-12 years) were discovered buried together; accompanying them was an elaborate assemblage of high status artifacts similar to those from other recent archaeological finds that are believed to be capacocha sacrifices. Since colonial documents indicate that capacocha children were selected from diverse regions of the empire, we initiated a radiogenic strontium isotope analysis to determine the origins of the children found at Choquepukio. Our analysis showed that, indeed, two children in the assemblage had non-local origins. When considered together, the osteological, archaeological, and isotopic evidence suggest that a capacocha event occurred at Choquepukio, representing the only lower-elevation capacocha to have been found in the Cuzco region. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

This article addresses the bioarchaeological evidence for Inca warfare through an analysis of 454 adult skeletons from 11 sites in the Inca capital region of Cuzco, Peru. These 11 sites span almost 1000 years (AD 600-1532), which allows for a comparison of the evidence for warfare before the Inca came to power (Middle Horizon AD 600-1000), during the time of Inca ascendency in the Late Intermediate Period (AD 1000-1400), and after the Inca came to power and expanded throughout the Cuzco region and beyond (Inca Imperial Period, AD 1400-1532). The results indicate that 100 of 454 adults (22.0%) showed evidence of cranial trauma. Of these, 23 individuals had major cranial injuries suggestive of warfare, consisting of large, complete, and/or perimortem fractures. There was scant evidence for major injuries during the Middle Horizon (2.8%, 1/36) and Late Intermediate Period (2.5%, 5/199), suggesting that warfare was not prevalent in the Cuzco region before and during the Inca rise to power. Only in the Inca Imperial Period was there a significant rise in major injuries suggestive of warfare (7.8%, 17/219). Despite the significant increase in Inca times, the evidence for major cranial injuries was only sporadically distributed at Cuzco periphery sites and was entirely absent at Cuzco core sites. These findings suggest that while the Inca used warfare as a mechanism for expansion in the Cuzco region, it was only one part of a complex expansion strategy that included economic, political, and ideological means to gain and maintain control. Copyright © 2011 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

We document evidence for trophy-taking and dismemberment with a new bioarchaeological database featuring 13,453 individuals from prehistoric central California sites. Our study reveals 76 individuals with perimortem removal of body parts consistent with trophy-taking or dismemberment; nine of these individuals display multiple types of trophy-taking and dismemberment for a total of 87 cases. Cases span almost 5,000 years, from the Early Period (3000-500 BC) to the Late Period (AD 900-1700). Collectively, these individuals share traits that distinguish them from the rest of the population: a high frequency of young adult males, an increased frequency of associated trauma, and a tendency towards multiple burials and haphazard burial positions. Eight examples of human bone artifacts were also found that appear related to trophy-taking. These characteristics suggest that trophy-taking and dismemberment were an important part of the warfare practices of central Californian tribes. Temporally, the two practices soared in the Early/Middle Transition Period (500-200 BC), which may have reflected a more complex sociopolitical system that encouraged the use of trophies for status acquisition, as well as the migration of outside groups that resulted in intensified conflict. Overall, trophy-taking and dismemberment appear to have been the product of the social geography of prehistoric central California, where culturally differentiated tribes lived in close proximity to their enemies.

Drawing on research conducted in Cuzco, Peru, The Wari Civilization and Their Descendants: Imperial Transformation in Pre-Inca Cuzco, Peru analyzes the political and social transformations that led to the downfall of the Wari civilization in the Andean Middle Horizon period (AD 500–1000) and resulted in the rise of the Inca state. The contributors to this collection present evidence of the Wari civilization’s robust, imperialistic occupation of Cuzco, and argue that this presence laid the groundwork for later regional polities that can be traced to the Late Horizon Inca period (AD 1476–1532). This collection fills a gap in scholarly literature on Cuzco prehistory, the provincial southern highlands of the Wari civilization, and early imperialism in the Andes.

In this article, I apply Alain Badiou's theory of the event to make sense of the beliefs of an anti-sanction activist in Germany. Sanctions are deductions to unemployment benefits imposed by jobs counselors on their unemployed clients. Ethnographic research with Renate shows how her beliefs about the welfare state and her own personal life are examined by her as conditions for the abolition of sanctions in Germany, which is considered here as an event within Badiou’s ontological framework.

We compare domestic architectural features in New England and the Maritime Peninsula to investigate the relationship between the adoption of horticulture and its relationship to social and settlement change during the Woodland Period. Horticulture was not practiced on the Maritime Peninsula until after European contact, despite cultural and environmental similarity to New England. In New England, horticulture has been implicated in profound social and settlement changes. However, aggregated villages, a unit typically investigated for evidence of social change, have proven elusive in the archaeological record. We compiled and analyzed a dataset of dwelling features instead of relying on identifiable villages. This novel quantitative approach uses dwelling feature shape and size as a proxy for social and settlement change, considering these changes at the scale of the house. We find that, during the Woodland Period, dwelling size was overall slightly larger in New England than on the Maritime Peninsula, but ranges heavily overlapped. After the introduction of horticulture, however, dwellings in New England grew in size overall and assumed bimodally distinct larger and smaller forms, which likely necessitated a restructuring of social and economic behavior. This pattern correlates maize horticulture with changes in social and economic lifestyle in Late Woodland New England. , Nous comparons des structures d'habitation domestiques de sites archéologiques de la Nouvelle-Angleterre et de la péninsule maritime afin d'explorer les conséquences de l'adoption généralisée de l'horticulture en termes de changements sociaux et de transformation des modes d’établissement en Nouvelle-Angleterre à la période Sylvicole. L'horticulture ne fut pas pratiquée dans la péninsule maritime avant la période du contact européen, malgré de fortes similarités culturelles et environnementales avec la Nouvelle-Angleterre. En Nouvelle-Angleterre, l'horticulture est présentée comme ayant été la source de changements sociaux profonds et d'une transformation des modes d’établissement. Au niveau archéologique cependant les sites de village font défaut, alors qu'ils constituent habituellement un repère pour l'identification et l’étude des changements sociaux; cette situation a provoqué des débats sur l'impact socio-économique de l'horticulture. Nous analysons ici un ensemble de données concernant des structures d'habitation individuelles en faisant fi de l'idée selon laquelle l’étude d'un village bien défini est nécessaire. Cette approche quantitative novatrice nous permet d'aborder la question des changements sociaux et de l’évolution des modes d’établissement à l’échelle de l'habitation, par l'intermédiaire de la forme et des dimensions des structures. Nous observons que durant la période sylvicole la taille des structures d'habitation était en général légèrement plus grande en Nouvelle-Angleterre que dans la péninsule maritime, malgré une fourchette de dimensions comparable pour les deux régions. Les habitations de la Nouvelle-Angleterre voient toutefois leur taille augmenter après l'introduction de l'horticulture, alors que se développe une division bimodale entre de grandes et de petites structures, changements rendus possibles par une probable réorganisation des comportements économiques et sociaux. Cette tendance met en corrélation la culture du maïs avec une transformation des modes de vie économiques et sociaux en Nouvelle-Angleterre durant le sylvicole supérieur.

Functional analyses of the 4.4 Ma hominin Ardipithecus ramidus postcrania revealed a previously unknown and unpredicted locomotor pattern combining arboreal clambering and a form of terrestrial bipedality. To date, all of the fossil evidence of Ar. ramidus locomotion has been collected from the Aramis area of the Middle Awash Research Project in Ethiopia. Here, we present the results of an analysis of additional early Pliocene Ar. ramidus fossils from the Gona Project study area, Ethiopia, that includes a fragmentary but informative partial skeleton (GWM67/P2) and additional isolated manual remains. While we reinforce the original functional interpretations of Ar. ramidus of having a mixed locomotor adaptation of terrestrial bipedality and arboreal clambering, we broaden our understanding of the nature of its locomotor pattern by documenting better the function of the hip, ankle, and foot. The newly recovered fossils document a greater adaptation to bipedality in the Ar. ramidus ankle and hallux than previously recognized. In addition, a newly discovered scaphoid bone with a fusing os centrale provides further evidence about the nature of hominin hand evolution. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The capacity of Homo sapiens for the intergenerational accumulation of complex technologies, practices, and beliefs is central to contemporary accounts of human distinctiveness. However, the actual antiquity and evolutionary origins of cumulative culture are not known. Here we propose and exemplify a research program for studying the origins of cumulative culture using archaeological evidence. Our stepwise approach disentangles assessment of the observed fidelity of behavior reproduction from inferences regarding required learning mechanisms (e.g., teaching, imitation) and the explanation of larger-scale patterns of change. It is empirically grounded in technological analysis of artifact assemblages using well-validated experimental models. We demonstrate with a case study using a toolmaking replication experiment to assess evidence of behavior copying across three 2.6 Ma Oldowan sites from Gona, Ethiopia. Results fail to reveal any effects of raw material size, shape, quality, or reduction intensity that could explain the observed details of intersite technological variation in terms of individual learning across different local conditions. This supports the view that relatively detailed copying of toolmaking methods was already a feature of Oldowan technological reproduction at ca. 2.6 Ma. We conclude with a discussion of prospects and implications for further research on the evolution of human cumulative culture.

Gona in the Afar region of Ethiopia has yielded the earliest Oldowan stone tools in the world. Artefacts from the East Gona (EG) 10 site date back 2.6 million years. Analysis of the lithic assemblage from EG 10 reveals the earliest-known evidence for refitting and conjoining stone artefacts. This new information supplements data from other Oldowan sites in East Africa, and provides an important insight into the technological capacities and evolutionary development of hominins during this period.

Konso in Ethiopia and Kokiselei in Kenya, both dated to ~1.7 million years ago (Ma), and FLK West, a recently reported site from Olduvai dated to 1.7 Ma, are the earliest Acheulean sites known in East Africa. Ongoing archaeological investigations at Gona, in the Afar Depression of Ethiopia, have also produced early Acheulean stone assemblages at several sites, estimated to ~1.6–1.2 Ma. A number of sites, including BSN-12 and OGS-12, have yielded archaeological materials comparable to the earliest Konso artifacts. The stone assemblages from the Gona sites consist of crudely made handaxes, cleavers, and picks, as well as Mode I (Oldowan) cores, and débitage. A variety of raw materials were exploited at Gona, with trachyte, rhyolite, and basalt being the most common.Our understanding of the behavioral and ecological background for the emergence of the Acheulean is still limited. Preliminary comparisons of BSN-12 and OGS-12 with other early Acheulean sites demonstrate variability in paleoecological settings as well as raw material use. Current archaeological evidence indicates that early Homo erectus/ergaster use of this new technology was already in place in East Africa ~1.75 Ma. At Gona and elsewhere in Africa, continued survey and excavations are needed to document sites with potential for yielding archaeological traces that will help our understanding of the Oldowan–Acheulean transition, the identity of the toolmakers, and the function of the early Acheulean Large Cutting Tools (LCTs).

This article examines one informant's approach to the relationship between ideological concepts and political power. I argue that ideological representation must be understood on its own terms, rather than within a larger theory of discourse. I point toward three key qualities of every encounter with ideological representation: subjectivity, discontinuity, and commitment. The fieldwork on which this article is based occurred in Berlin, Germany, during the fall 2014. During this period, my research focused on activists committed to overturning the sanctioning policy (Sanktionspolitik), which allows case managers to dock the unemployment benefits of their clients. [ideology, subjectivity, welfare state, Germany]