Hallucinogens, alcohol and shifting leadership strategies in the ancient Peruvian Andes

In the pre-Columbian Andes, the use of hallucinogens during the Formative period (900–300 BC) often supported exclusionary political strategies, whereas, during the Late Horizon (AD 1450–1532), Inca leaders emphasised corporate strategies via the mass consumption of alcohol. Using data from Quilcapampa, the authors argue that a shift occurred during the Middle Horizon (AD 600–1000), when beer made from Schinus molle was combined with the hallucinogen Anadenanthera colubrina. The resulting psychotropic experience reinforced the power of the Wari state, and represents an intermediate step between exclusionary and corporate political strategies. This Andean example adds to the global catalogue documenting the close relationship between hallucinogens and social power.

STONE TOOL FUNCTIONS, HOUSEHOLD ACTIVITIES, AND FORMATIVE LITHIC ECONOMIES IN NORTHERN TLAXCALA, MEXICO

High-magnification use-wear analyses create datasets that enable microeconomic studies of lithic consumption and household activities that complement macroeconomic studies of lithic production and exchange to collectively improve our reconstructions of ancient economies. In recent decades, compositional and technological analyses have revealed how certain obsidian sources and lithic technologies were exploited, produced, and exchanged in Mexico's central highlands region during the Formative period (1500 b.c.–a.d. 100). This article presents use-wear analyses of 275 lithic artifacts from four sites in northern Tlaxcala—Amomoloc (900–650 b.c.), Tetel (750–500 b.c.), Las Mesitas (600–500 b.c.), and La Laguna (600–400 b.c. and 100 b.c.–a.d. 150)—to compare household activities with lithic technologies and evaluate their roles in regional economies. Blades were used for subsistence and domestic crafting; maguey fiber extraction for textile production increased over time, especially in non-elite households. The preparation and consumption of meat acquired by hunting and other methods increased slightly over time, and bipolar tools were used as kitchen utensils. Bloodletting was practiced with two variations of late-series pressure blades, but these and other tools were neither exchanged as nor used to craft prestige goods, often viewed as driving forces of Formative economies in Mesoamerica.

The Motif of the Angel(s) of Death in Islamic Foundational Sources as an Element of Cultural Diffusion

The article harks back to the publication entitled “The Motif of the Angel(s) of Death in Islamic Foundational Sources” (VV 38/2 [2020]), which was devoted to the analysis of the eponymous theme in the foundational sources of Islam: the Quran and the sunna of the Prophet Muhammad. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether the motif of angel(s) may have been borrowed from two monotheistic traditions that came before. The verification of the thesis that the motif of the angel(s) of death underwent diffusion was carried out in several steps. First, the motif was identified in the textual traditions of Judaism and early Christianity (i.e. sets of texts that were known and, in all likelihood, widespread in the Middle East during the formative period of Islam). As a result of the analysis, most of the themes recognised in the foundational texts of Islam were found. The next step was to identify possible routes of their transmission and percolation into the Islamic tradition and to determine the “ideological demand” for the motif of the angel(s) of death in the burgeoning Islam. Although Jewish and Christian imagery and beliefs about angels are an important (if not the primary) source of influence on Muslim angelology, there was most likely a two-way interaction between the monotheistic traditions, albeit to a limited extent.

Usul al-Fiqh and Ijtihad in Shi‘ism

The second chapter traces the genesis and development of both ijtihad (reasoning) and usul al-fiqh (legal theory) in Shi‘i intellectual history. It argues that the concern for knowledge and certitude, which characterized much of Shi‘i juristic literature in its formative period, was displaced with a recognition and acceptance of doubt as an inalienable feature of the law. The chapter also demonstrates that in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, Shi‘i scholars elaborated and developed a specific Shi‘i theory of ijtihad. After discussing the Usuli–Akhbari dispute and its impact on legal theory, the chapter shows that Murtada Ansari constructed and methodically explored the epistemological categories of certainty, speculation, and doubt. This was important to Shi‘i legal history because it empowered jurists to issue rulings on many spheres of law that had hitherto remained beyond their realm, broadening, in the process, the scope of Islamic law and the possibilities of its revision.

Transformation in South African Tourism: A Geographical Perspective on the Eastern Cape

In the international scholarship about tourism small firms the most distinguishing feature of South Africa relates to transformation debates. This article represents a contribution to the vibrant literature around small tourism firms and change in the global South by analysing the geographies of transformation in one South African province, the Eastern Cape. An historical approach is applied to understand the spatial patterns of transformation as mapped in patterns of ownership of Black small-scale accommodation enterprises. The historical approach shows that different regulatory regimes regarding Black entrepreneurs and their involvement in South African tourism have existed at different times and especially under the influence of apartheid legislation and following democratic change. The formative period of Eastern Cape tourism during the first half of the 20th century witnessed the establishment of a tourism economy dominated by White entrepreneurs and most especially in the coastal areas. The apartheid period, however, allowed a small window of opportunity for Black entrepreneurs to establish tourism businesses in the former ‘reserves’ which would become the Homelands. It is shown that the former Homelands areas are currently the most advanced transformation spaces. This finding reinforces the view that whilst with the end of apartheid the Homelands formally ceased to exist their legacy remains inscribed on the character and geographical patterns of tourism small firm development in South Africa.

From the Physical Body to Dynamic Embodiment: Towards an Anthropological Study of Martial Arts Body Movement

This paper seeks a theoretical approach to the body best suited to the anthropological study of body movement in the martial arts. It follows the development of the anthropological attitude to the body from its formative period up until the present day, and this is done from the position of the “embodiment” paradigm as a theoretical orientation which enables a deeper understanding of the connection between specific cultural environments in which martial arts evolve and the meaning of the movements themselves. The introductory section provides a brief summary of “unembodied” theoretical schools of thought, which laid the foundations for the “somatic revolution”. The paper then considers the authors who have made the most significant contribution to the anthropological study of embodiment, and looks at four theoretical perspectives on the body, namely, the physical, socio-cultural, embodied, and dynamic embodiment perspectives. The paper also considers the question of overcoming the ontological body-mind dichotomy, which is the legacy of Cartesian dualism. Particular attention has been given to the embodiment and dynamic embodiment perspectives, and to their potential for application in anthropological studies of martial physical practices, illustrated with concrete examples.

Reimagining the Family of King Charles I in Nineteenth-Century British Painting

The nineteenth century represents a formative period for the development of historical consciousness in Britain, with texts and, increasingly, images shaping perceptions of the past. This article examines how Stuart history was interpreted and experienced, through a series of historical genre paintings of King Charles I and his family. It explores how Anthony van Dyck's depiction of politicized domesticity in royal portraiture was revised and reworked in these later images. Reimagining Stuart family life, they extended processes of remembering, enlisting audiences in an active, participatory engagement with the past. Probing temporal, visual, and verbal alignments and connections, the article contributes further dimensions to the understanding of historical representation. It argues that these paintings stirred the viewer's intellectual, emotional, and associative responses to encourage a sense of proximity. Establishing an episodic narrative, they initiated processes of recollection and recognition, they reflected sympathetic historiographies, and they encouraged a shared community with their pictorial protagonists. By so doing, nineteenth-century artists diminished historical distance and fashioned a familiarized past.

The structure of knowledge

Medieval architectures of knowledge designed in the Islamic world constitute a special case: They neatly reflect the competition between different intellectual traditions and approaches. On the one hand, there are those classifications that are centered on what was perceived as the indigenous sciences during the formative period, i.e. those sciences that arose in connection with the new religion, Islam, and the language of its revelation, Arabic. On the other hand, scholars eagerly took over and adapted disciplines deriving from non-Arab and non-Muslim cultures, primarily Greek science and philosophy. These traditions, however, transmitted their own conceptions of knowledge that partly stood in conflict with Arabic-Islamic ideas. In this article, I first give an overview of the various approaches and then concentrate on Fārābī and Avicenna, in order to trace a remarkable development: the gradual dissolution of boundaries both within and between the different scientific spheres and paradigms on epistemological grounds.

Quinoa, potatoes, and llamas fueled emergent social complexity in the Lake Titicaca Basin of the Andes

The Lake Titicaca basin was one of the major centers for cultural development in the ancient world. This lacustrine environment is unique in the high, dry Andean altiplano, and its aquatic and terrestrial resources are thought to have contributed to the florescence of complex societies in this region. Nevertheless, it remains unclear to what extent local aquatic resources, particularly fish, and the introduced crop, maize, which can be grown in regions along the lakeshores, contributed to facilitating sustained food production and population growth, which underpinned increasing social political complexity starting in the Formative Period (1400 BCE to 500 CE) and culminating with the Tiwanaku state (500 to 1100 CE). Here, we present direct dietary evidence from stable isotope analysis of human skeletal remains spanning over two millennia, together with faunal and floral reference materials, to reconstruct foodways and ecological interactions in southern Lake Titicaca over time. Bulk stable isotope analysis, coupled with compound-specific amino acid stable isotope analysis, allows better discrimination between resources consumed across aquatic and terrestrial environments. Together, this evidence demonstrates that human diets predominantly relied on C3 plants, particularly quinoa and tubers, along with terrestrial animals, notably domestic camelids. Surprisingly, fish were not a significant source of animal protein, but a slight increase in C4 plant consumption verifies the increasing importance of maize in the Middle Horizon. These results underscore the primary role of local terrestrial food resources in securing a nutritious diet that allowed for sustained population growth, even in the face of documented climate and political change across these periods.