Vol. 2 Ch. 7 Indigenous Native American Perspectives on Hopewell Bifaces from Mound 25, Hopewell Mound Group (33Ro27), Ross County, Ohio

https://ideaexchange.uakron.edu/encountering_hopewell/1017/thumbnail.jp

The use of fan scrapers: Microwear evidence from Late Pottery Neolithic and Early Bronze Age, Ein Zippori, Israel

The results of a microwear analysis of samples of fan scrapers and fan scrapers spalls from late Pottery Neolithic (PN) and Early Bronze Age (EBA) occupation layers at Ein Zippori, Lower Galilee, Israel are presented. The goal of the microwear analysis was to determine the function of the fan scrapers and compare the visible usewear on the scrapers found in late PN and EBA lithic assemblages. The results indicate that during both periods most of the fan scrapers were used to skin and butcher animals, while some were also used for hide processing and bone working. The working edges of the fan scrapers had sharp, moderate, or steep edge-angles, and different edges were used for different tasks. Edges with microwear from scraping meat, bone, and hides (including some hides that may have been treated with abrasives) had steep edge-angles, while there were moderate or sharp edge-angles on the edges of fan scrapers used for cutting. Two sub-types of fan scrapers were identified, flat cortex fan scrapers (FCFS), and cortical fan scrapers (CFS) with convex dorsal faces. The CFS were abundant in PN contexts, while the FCFS were more common in EBA layers. However both of the sub-types had similar microwear traces

Microwear analysis of small recycled flakes and recycling products from the Ein-Zippori site, Lower Galilee, Israel

A microwear analysis of recycled lithic artefacts from late Pottery Neolithic Wadi Rabah and Early Bronze Age layers at Ein-Zippori, Israel included cores-on-flakes (COFs) which are discarded blanks made into cores, and the flakes detached from them. COFs may have microwear traces that formed before they were recycled. The focus here is on how blanks removed from recycled COFs were used. Discarded flakes were not used as cores to produce small blanks at Ein-Zippori because lithic raw material was scarce, but were COFs recycled so that small tools could be produced for specific tasks? Visible wear traces were present on 19 of 44 blanks produced from COFs. Microwear traces were similar to use wear Lemorini et al. (2015) observed on much older Lower Paleolithic recycled flakes from Qesem Cave, Israel. Most flakes struck from COFs had been used to cut and scrape meat and fresh hide (42%, n=8), but four were used to work wood (21%) and four others were used to cut, scrape, or whittle bone and wood (21%), and two were used for butchering and wood working (11%). One flake only had generic weak microwear traces (5%). These were expedient flake tools, made and used in an ad hoc fashion. Specific blanks do not seem to have been used for distinct tasks

Fathers stepping up? A cross-national comparison of fathers’ domestic labour and parents’ satisfaction with the division of domestic labour during the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted work and family life around the world. For parents, this upending meant a potential re-negotiation of the ‘status quo’ in the gendered division of labour. A comparative lens provides extended understandings of changes in fathers’ domestic work based in socio-cultural context–in assessing the size and consequences of change in domestic labour in relation to the type of work-care regime. Using novel harmonized data from four countries (the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands) and a work-care regime framework, this study examines cross-national changes in fathers’ shares of domestic labour during the early months of the pandemic and whether these changes are associated with parents’ satisfaction with the division of labour. Results indicate that fathers’ shares of housework and childcare increased early in the pandemic in all countries, with fathers’ increased shares of housework being particularly pronounced in the US. Results also show an association between fathers’ increased shares of domestic labour and mothers’ increased satisfaction with the division of domestic labour in the US, Canada, and the UK. Such comparative work promises to be generative for understanding the pandemic’s imprint on gender relations far into the future

A techno-typological analysis of fan (tabular) scrapers from Ein Zippori, Israel

Fan (or tabular) scrapers are a diagnostic  tool type in Chalcolithic Ghassulian and Early Bronze Age lithic assemblages from  the southern Levant. To date, only small numbers of fan scrapers have been reported from the Late Pottery Neolithic Wadi Rabah culture. In this paper we present a techno-typological analysis of a fair sample of fan scrapers and fan scrapers spalls from Wadi Rabah and Early Bronze Age layers at Ein Zippori, Lower Galilee, Israel. Techno-typological similarities and differences of Wadi Rabah, Chalcolithic Ghassulian and Early Bronze Age fan scrapers from Ein Zippori and other sites in the region are presented, trends of change along time are noted, and an updated definition is proposed. Our results indicate that fan scrapers are highly efficient tools for accurate and prolonged animal butchering and hide working. The main advantage of fan scrapers is their mostly flat, thin morphology and large size that permits the creation of several relatively long working edges, various retouched angles (from sharp to abrupt), extensive resharpening, and a comfortable grasp. While fan scrapers were products of a local trajectory in Late Pottery Neolithic Wadi Rabah lithic industries at Ein Zippori, a standardized, off-site manufacturing of fan scrapers is evident during the Early Bronze Age

In photosynthesis, oxygen comes from water: from a 1787 book for women by Monsieur De Fourcroy

Abstract It is now well established that the source of oxygen in photosynthesis is water. The earliest suggestion previously known to us had come from René Bernard Wurmser (1930). Here, we highlight an earlier report by Monsieur De Fourcroy (1787), who had already discussed the broad outlines of such a hypothesis in a book on Chemistry written for women. We present here a free translation of a passage from this book, with the original text in French as an Appendix

Community, work, and family in times of COVID-19

We are living in challenging and uncertain times. At the time this article was edited, there were already more than 2.4 million confirmed cases of the corona virus (COVID-19) (World Health Organization, 2020). Nearly every country across the globe is struggling to reduce the spread of the COVID-19 virus and limit its health, societal, and economic consequences. The full impact on community, work, family, and its intersections is not yet clear. As the Editorial Board of Community, Work & Family, we share a deep concern for the potential impact of this global health pandemic. We similarly stand in awe to all the communities, workers, and families doing their utmost to combat it.In this article, we do not attempt to provide definitive answers or even recommendations to address the problems we are witnessing. We do, however, feel the need to raise a collective voice about the significant potential for increased inequality. COVID-19 is not a great leveler. In all likelihood, COVID-19 will exacerbate existing inequalities, both in its immediate consequences resulting from the drastic measures taken to contain its spread, as well as its potential long-term consequences. These inequalities may take many forms. We highlight a number of them here as they relate to this journal’s focus on community, work, and family