Lithic economies and community organization at La Laguna, Tlaxcala

Site-wide, assemblage-based lithic analyses help to elucidate community dynamics including variability in domestic economies, technological skill and decision making, exchange networks, and ritual practices. In this study we present the results of an analysis of over 36,000 lithic artifacts from the site of La Laguna, Tlaxcala. We compare Middle to Late Formative period (ca. 600–400 b.c.) and Terminal Formative period (ca. 100 b.c.–a.d. 150) deposits to examine transformations associated with urbanization and state formation during this interval. The residents of La Laguna had relatively equal and ample access to obsidian, and most production was organized independently by households. We identify blade production zones and variability in consumption patterns suggestive of different domestic, communal, and ceremonial activities. The introduction of bloodletters, elaborate large bifacial knives, and zoomorphic eccentrics to the Terminal Formative assemblage may indicate the emergence of higher statuses, new social roles, and militaristic symbolism during this period

Federal Rules of Evidence and the Political Process

An important tenet of American evidence law is the strict regulation on the introduction of character evidence. This principal has begun to be chipped away at through the adoption of amendments that allow character evidence to be introduced in certain types of cases. The Federal Rules of Evidence were subject to very little amendment during their first 20 years of use, and have always represented a blend of conservatism about evidence law and political compromise. This tension has been kept in check until the proposal of Rules 413-415, which represents a concession to the politicization of the rules. Before imposing such a drastic change, Congress should be sure that their proposal is backed by strong empirical evidence

Separating Judicial Power

Currie outlines the development of the status of judges in England and in the US, with a brief reference to the German system. He also discusses some of the more important controversies over judicial independence and accountability that have arisen under the US Constitution

The Constitution in the Supreme Court: Contracts and Commerce, 1836-1864

Continuing a study of the first hundred years of constitutional litigation, Professor Currie explores the decisions of the Taney period respecting the Contract and Commerce Clauses. Though early decisions of the Taney Court seemed to portend a departure from the nationalism of its predecessor, the author argues that the impression was largely misleading. In general, for example, the Court under Taney proved rather sympathetic to contract rights. In Commerce Clause cases, after being badly split, the Court was able to agree on a longlasting formula that acknowledged an implicit limitation on state power; and although in the Taney period the Court never clearly struck down a state law on Commerce Clause grounds, it found other ways to protect the interest in unobstructed commerce

Parasitism of \u3ci\u3eAncistrocerus Antilope\u3c/i\u3e (Hymenoptera: Eumenidae) by Leucospis Affinis (Hymenoptera: Leucospididae)

The chalcid wasp Leucospis affinis has been known to parasitize only megachilid bees. Its rare occurrence as a parasite of the eumenid wasp Ancistrocerus antilope indicates that eumenid wasps may be a large resource this chalcid is not exploiting

The Unified Segment Tree and its Application to the Rectangle Intersection Problem

In this paper we introduce a variation on the multidimensional segment tree, formed by unifying different interpretations of the dimensionalities of the data structure. We give some new definitions to previously well-defined concepts that arise naturally in this variation, and we show some properties concerning the relationships between the nodes, and the regions those nodes represent. We think these properties will enable the data to be utilized in new situations, beyond those previously studied. As an example, we show that the data structure can be used to solve the Rectangle Intersection Problem in a more straightforward and natural way than had be done in the past.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figure