In this paper I describe the Kamilaroi community who live in the small town of Moree on the Northwest Plains in New South Wales. I focus on their relations with pastoral stations during the process of colonisation, migration from secondary residences to fringe camps and the social class system in their community. Anthropologists have so far had little information about their historical and contemporary situation.
During the era of colonisation, the Kamilaroi of the Northwest Plains depended on pastoral stations by clearing fields, building work, and receiving government rations. Around 1890, the first camp was set up on the Mehi river bank opposite Moree District Hospital. By the early twentieth century another four camps had been established some distance from town by migrants from almost the entire Kamilaroi country. These camps were roughly divided according to the place of former residence: for instance, the Steel Bridge Campers were migrants from Boggabilla on the Queensland border. According to their descendants who live in the town, they formed three social classes or strata within their community depending on the degree of assimilation.
In the 1960s the camps were absorbed into two Aboriginal Reserves, Mehi Mission and Stanley Village, established by the government. Yet class or social strata remain based on family economic standards. For the lower class, this system means denial of status as Aboriginal people in Kamilaroi community. On the other hand, upper class people want to preserve their status as a means of accessing the white community through marriage and so on.
For the people of the two classes, “freedom” has different meanings. For the upper class, it means independence from welfare, for the lower class, independence from poverty. These meanings are unchanged from the fringe camp period. Their social conditions at a rural town in settled Australia are still poor.

Key Words: Kamilaroi, Moree, class, fringe camp, Northwest Plains

The study of prehistoric human diets through stable carbon and nitrogen isotope measurement of human bone collagen has been developed in recent years. Because plants (C4 plants) containing relatively large amounts of the carbon isotope 13C and plants (C3 plants) containing relatively little coexist in the land ecosystem, it is possible to gain a rough idea of plant food intake by measuring the ratio. Analyses of osteological samples from archaeological sites in the north highlands of Peru belonging to the Formative period (B.C.1500-B.C.50) allows the calculation of the relative importance of maize, the only C4 cultigen consumed in pre-Hispanic Peru, in the diet. Changes in the relative ratio are also discussed in an archaeological context.

Key Words: stable isotopes, nitrogen, carbon, prehistoric diet, maize, Peru

Methyl bromide gas or mixtures containing it have been widely used as pest control fumigants on cultural properties in Japan. However, the application of this chemical must be strictly controlled after 2005, because of its depletive effect on the ozone layer, specified in the Montreal Convention.
The National Museum of Ethnology has developed, to meet such strict controls, a thermal treatment system, applicable to large-size ethnographic objects displayed in an exhibition hall. The system is composed of three parts: a thermal isolation container with polystyrene foam panels, a heat generator, and connecting pipes. This system can be used anywhere where there is a power supply, and can be easily moved or stored. Hot air at about 70℃ circulates inside a closed space, composed of a container and a generator with connecting pipes, so that the temperature and the relative humidity of the exhibition hall are not affected. The object to be treated is perfectly sealed in an air barrier plastic sheet prior to the heat treatment, and in this way there is no free space to evaporate moisture from the object, so the risk of deformation due to water loss is negligible. When a sufficient temperature has been maintained for a suitable time, 100% pest mortality can be expected. The first application of this “on site heat treatment for large-size ethnographic objects” was made on an Indian fishing boat in an exhibition hall of the National Museum of Ethnology, in March 2003.

Key Words: heated air, heat treatment, pest control, museum pests, large-size thnographic objects

This article considers the Mahabharata epic “ world ” in performances of the wayang golek purwa ( rod puppet theatre ) in West Java. In general, the stories of the wayang golek purwa mainly derive from the Hindu epics the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. In the performances, however, we do not see the linear plot of the epics that characterizes the written texts. All night performances of the wayang merely perform a particular episode or lakon derived from the epics. The epic “ world ” is formed by concentrating on these episodes. In this article, I focus on the elements of the stylistic structure of lakon and biographical information on the main characters in considering the Mahabharata epic
“ world ” in performances of the wayang.

Key Words: Mahabharata, wayang, West Java, lakon, stylistic structure, biographical information

The Xiandao language is one of the newly discovered minority languages in China. It has very few speakers, and therefore can be considered as a language in danger of extinction. We have chosen Xiandao as a case study of an endangered language, mainly because the causes of the decline and disappearance of the Xiandao language are various, but ethnic group separation is the most important factor. Only fifty years ago, some Xiandao people lost their native language and came to use Chinese instead; others use the Jingpo language as their main language, while their native language plays a secondary role. The endangered language Xiandao experiences language contact →bilingualism→language shift. The two movements accelerate language shift. The Xiandao language belongs to the extremely endangered type.

Key Words: ethnic groupe separation language endangerment extremely endangered type