"The Invisible Sex: Uncovering the True Roles of Women in Prehistory," by J.M. Adovasio, Olga Soffer and Jake Page, promises to lay out everything the most current research has established about archaic women, and the truth is that it's pretty thin gruel. The authors can point out some embarrassing mistakes made by past experts and suggest some intriguing alternative interpretations of various facts and artifacts, but even so there's a lot of padding and extraneous material in this book's 300 pages.

The truth is that we can prove very, very little about how prehistoric people organized their social groups, especially when it comes to sex roles. We have bones, some tools and the remains of dwellings and other structures, but these can't tell us for sure who brought home the bacon or wore the pants, to use two inappropriately modern figures of speech. Sometimes these finds can't even tell us for sure who was who; one of the unsettling revelations in "The Invisible Sex" is that Lucy -- the famous Australopithecus afarensis whose 3.3 million-year-old fossilized remains were discovered in 1974 by archaeologists in a remote valley of the Awash River in Ethiopia, could possibly be a Luke instead. The leader of the expedition who found "her" says that the identification of the remains as female is not much more than an educated -- and possibly biased -- guess, based on the relative smallness of the bones.

The biased guessing in a lot of old-school anthropology comes in for some pointed ridicule in "The Invisible Sex." The scientists of generations past -- and the magazine and book illustrators and museum diorama designers who translated their theories into images -- had a fixation on the idea of prehistoric man as a mighty hunter, working in teams to bring down large, dangerous animals like mammoth and bison. A painting from the National Geographic archives (reproduced in this book) pictures a fivesome of well-developed and scantily clad Paleoindian studs battling the fearsome great short-faced bear, a predator the authors describe as "capable of bringing down any prey except perhaps an adult mammoth." This sort of fairy tale, along with scenarios in which bands of doughty hunters chased herds of mammoths off cliffs and returned laden with meat to camps of grateful women and children, "appear now to be mythmaking on the part of the paleoanthropological community," they explain.

The bones of 14 Maori housed in an American museum are to be returned to New Zealand.

Dr John Terrell, curator of Chicago's Pacific Anthropology at the Field Museum of Natural History, said it had been considering returning the bones for the past two or three years, but only made the final decision on Monday.

He told Prime Minister Helen Clark of the decision when she visited the museum on Thursday as part of a week-long trip to the United States.

Dr Terrell said a request by Wellington's Te Papa museum to return the bones was genuine and sincere. Further discussions would be held with Te Papa.

Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine says he will approve a $400,000 amendment that would fund the cash-strapped Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond, ending its recent struggle to secure state assistance.

The cash infusion will help cover the museum's 2007-08 general operating budget, which includes staffing. The annual price tag to run the museum is estimated at $2.1 million.

Museum officials hope that a combination of budget cuts and emergency fundraising efforts will help them stay in the black for the fiscal year that ends in June.

"We're really happy that the state is helping us out," said Megan Miller, the museum's director of communications.

PEOPLE WAITED in a milelong line to see the USS John F. Kennedy when it docked for a weekend at the North Jetty in South Boston earlier this month. The 82,000-ton aircraft carrier, soon to be decommissioned, had barely departed before cries went up to bring it back permanently as a floating museum.

The idea is intriguing, but no one should be planning a nautical outing anytime soon. The Navy doesn't abide hasty reuses for its decommissioned warships. And it doesn't appear to be nostalgic in choosing between mothballing a ship and placing it on so-called "donation hold" status -- in which the ship is available for acquisition by a nonprofit organization but can still be brought back to service in an emergency. Nothing less than a superb business plan is likely to get the attention of the secretary of the Navy, warn those who keep such museums afloat.

Of the five US aircraft carriers now operating as museums, the USS Midway Museum in San Diego is the gold standard. Roughly 800,000 visitors board the ship each year, according to Midway's marketing director, Scott McGaugh. The action doesn't stop when the sun goes down. Corporate parties, conventioneer dinners, and dances take place on the flight deck some 200 nights each year. Councilor Stephen Murphy of Boston sensed the spectacular tourism potential of a carrier when he raised the banner for berthing the USS Kennedy in Boston for good. But the gulf between idea and implementation is vast.

In what is being characterized by subordinates as an act of
"managerial dementia," the Director of the Congressional
Research Service this week prohibited all public distribution of
CRS products without prior approval from senior agency
officials.

"I have concluded that prior approval should now be required at
the division or office level before products are distributed to
members of the public," wrote CRS Director Daniel P. Mullohan in
a memo to all CRS staff. "This policy is effective
immediately."

While CRS has long refused (with Congressional concurrence) to
make its electronic database of reports available to the public
online, it has still been possible for members of the press,
other researchers, and other government officials to request
specific reports from the congressional support agency.

But now, "to avoid inconsistencies and to increase
accountability, CRS policy requires prior approval at the
division level before products can be disseminated to
non-congressionals," Director Mullohan wrote.

The new policy demonstrates that "this is an organization in
freefall," according to one CRS analyst. "We are now indeed
working for Captain Queeg."

"We're all sort of shaking," another CRS staffer told Secrecy
News. "I can't do my work."

"There's not a day that goes by that I don't talk to someone in
another agency, another organization, or someone else outside of
Congress and we share information," the staffer said. "Now I
can't do that?"

A copy of the March 20 memorandum from Director Mullohan,
entitled "Distribution of CRS Products to Non-Congressionals,"
was obtained by Secrecy News and is available here:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/crs032007.pdf

It was also reported by Elizabeth Williamson in the Washington
Post today.

None of the CRS personnel contacted by Secrecy News was able to explain exactly what propmpted CRS Director Mulhollan to issue the policy memorandum this week.

While other parts of government strive to eliminate unnecessary
obstacles to information sharing, the new CRS policy may be seen as an experiment in what happens when barriers to information sharing are arbitrarily increased. It probably won't be good.

With some frequency, CRS analysts contact FAS with requests for
information or documents. (A recent CRS report on Chinese naval modernization reprinted a large excerpt of an analysis of
Chinese submarine patrols by FAS analyst Hans Kristensen.) We
haven't been shy about requesting information or documents in
return. And both sides seem to have benefitted.

"More important, Congress has benefitted," a staffer said. But
now such working relationships may be jeopardized.

EDINBURGH -- On A winter’s day in 1707, this old, stone town saw the Scottish Parliament sign itself and the independence of Scotland out of existence by voting for a treaty of union with England that created Great Britain. Today, 300 years later, polls suggest that Scots who would undo all that seem poised for a significant victory in a restored Scottish Parliament during elections in May.

WASHINGTON -- The National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress today announced that "Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers" is debuting online with more than 226,000 pages of public domain newspapers from California, Florida, Kentucky, New York, Utah, Virginia, and the District of Columbia published between 1900 and 1910.

The text of the newspapers is fully searchable, and search terms can be limited to a particular state, a specific newspaper, by year or years of publication and even by months. The new site is available at http://www.loc.gov/chroniclingamerica

"Chronicling America" is produced by the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP)...a partnership between the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the Library of Congress...

Ultimately, over a period of approximately 20 years, NDNP will create a national, digital resource of historically significant newspapers from all the states and U.S. territories published between 1836 and 1922. Also on the Web site, an accompanying national newspaper directory of bibliographic and holdings information directs users to newspaper titles in all types of formats. The information in the directory was created through an earlier NEH initiative, the United States Newspaper Program.

JEROME, Idaho -- More than 60 years ago, 13,000 Americans of Japanese descent were kept behind barbed wire at the Minidoka Relocation Camp during World War II.

Today, just 73 acres of the original camp make up the Minidoka Internment National Monument east of Jerome and north of Eden.

On Monday, Idaho Senators Larry Craig and Mike Crapo and Rep. Mike Simpson introduced legislation that would expand the site, according to a press release from the leaders...

The legislation authorizes the expansion of the monument by 128 acres, including Herrmann Farm. It also authorizes an 8-acre site in Bainbridge Island, Wash., as part of the site. [The Bainbridge Island Japanese American Monument Act passed the House by 419-0 in February.]

The island site was the nation's first internment camp, and the first stop for many people who were then shipped to other camps, like Minidoka.

Related Links

Organizers break ground for WWII internment camp memorial in Fresno County

Time running out for internment apology

On the March 19 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, host Rush Limbaugh highlighted a March 19 Los Angeles Times op-ed that described Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) as"running for an equally important unelected office, in the province of the popular imagination -- the"Magic Negro" -- a term used by critics of pop culture to describe certain benevolent African-American characters.

Limbaugh stated:"The term 'Magic Negro' has been thrown into the political presidential race in the mix for 2008. And the term 'Magic Negro,' as applied to Barack Obama has been done by an L.A. Times columnist, David Ehrenstein."

Limbaugh later asserted:"I'm going to keep referring to him as that because I want to make a bet that by the end of this week I will own that term," adding,"If I refer to Obama the rest of the day as the 'Magic Negro,' there will be a number of people in the drive-by media and on left-wing blogs who will credit me for coming up with it and ignore the L.A. Times did it, simply because they can't be critical of the L.A. Times, but they can, obviously, be critical of talk radio."

If you have ever signed a petition, worn a charity wristband or taken part in a demonstration you owe something to Thomas Clarkson.

The preacher's son from Cambridgeshire is one of the great unsung heroes of the fight to abolish slavery and the slave trade.

But what is even less well known is the extent to which Clarkson and his fellow abolitionists set the template for all future protest movements.

Every modern campaigning technique -- from celebrity endorsement to political lobbying and consumer boycotts -- was pioneered by the abolitionists more than 200 years ago.

NEW DELHI -- One paints a dispassionate view of the man better known as Mahatma Gandhi, the other stirs controversy about his murder. Both are fuelling renewed interest in the humble father of modern India.

Two newly-released chronicles of Gandhi's life and death, written by his descendants, have sold more than 10,000 copies each in nearly a month since they were launched. In India, a non-fiction book can become a bestseller with more than 7,000 copies sold.

Publishers said the sales proved Gandhi's legacy was relevant 59 years after his death and provided evidence of renewed interest that was sparked last year by a blockbuster comedy movie in which the leader plays mentor to gangsters.

An anti-smoking group called on the U.S. National Slavery Museum to return a donation from tobacco giant Philip Morris USA, saying the company targets children "for another form of slavery."

Matthew L. Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, sent a letter to the museum's executive director, Vonita Foster, last week. Myers said the association with the nation's largest cigarette manufacturer would counter the museum's goal of educating children.

"This is indeed a laudable goal, but by taking receipt of this donation, the museum is joining forces with a company that continues to target children for another form of slavery," Myers wrote.

Gruesome evidence found in ancient burial chambers reveals a period of violence and instability in Stone Age Britain, according to archaeologists.

Signs of bloody massacres and fractured societies are emerging from research that used new dating techniques to age prehistoric skeletons and burial sites in southern England.

Since the Smithsonian Institution was created by Congress in 1846, top lawmakers have held seats on its board, along with the chief justice and the vice president of the United States.

Now, after an audit found questionable spending by the Smithsonian's chief, watchdogs are wondering who's paying attention.

In January, an internal audit found that since 2000, Smithsonian Secretary Lawrence M. Small had $90,000 in unauthorized expenses and charged the Smithsonian $1.1 million for use of his home. The expenses include $160,000 to redecorate his office and $273,000 for housekeeping at the home.

But even as congressmen promised to scrutinize the expenses, it didn't go unnoticed that six members of Congress sit on the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian, a nonprofit and public trust that receives nearly $680 million annually from the federal government -- about 70 percent of its budget. This is the same board that approved Small's spending and then tried to keep the audit secret -- much to the dismay of nonprofit watchdogs and some Smithsonian curators and scientists.

Luvenia Butler doesn't have photographs of her ancestors — among them cooks and masons — who lived as slaves at the Belle Meade Plantation some 150 years ago. But, she says laughing, she sees them every time she visits the premises. In her case, that's pretty often.

Butler is one of the newest members of the board of directors at the plantation — the very place where her great-grandmother Jenny White once lived in bondage.

"I've always been taught it's important to learn about the past, but you also don't want to live in the past," said Butler, who works for the state Health Department.

She is one of three African-Americans on the museum's 30-plus-member board.

A unique kind museum opened in Vienna this week. Everything inside revolves around contraception and abortions, and the museum attempts to go beyond any other collection in any other nation.

The initiator of this museum is Christian Fiala, a doctor who has directed a clinic for abortions and family planning in Vienna for the past 10 years. Fiala is seen as a missionary for women’s health and is the chairman of the International Association of Abortion and Contraception Specialists.

Displayed in two rooms are items Fiala has collected over the decades.

The first room is devoted to contraception, and it displays the wide variety of items used over the centuries to prevent pregnancies. The first birth-control pill is displayed next to ancient condoms made of pig bladders. In the doorway to the second room, pregnancy tests, which were developed in the 1960s, are hanging.

This leads into the abortion room. Up until about 1900, abortions were so dangerous that it was safer for women to carry the child to term and then kill it after it was born. Visitors can even listen to recordings of abortion providers discussing how up until 30 years ago it was still a life-threatening procedure.

As the UK marks 200 years since it abolished the slave trade, Sierra Leone has decided to purge its capital, Freetown, of streets named after the British and replace them with the names of Africans who fought in the abolition movement.

Freetown, as its name implies, was founded in 1787 as a home for freed slaves and many residents have welcomed the move to recognise African heroes on its streets.

"Since the British came and went, they have done nothing for us after slavery. All their names are on the streets. You come into Freetown you see them, the only street with an African name is Siaka Stevens street," says resident Sammy Conteh.

Mohamed Bobson-Kamara, chairman of the city's planning committee for the bicentenary, says the role of black abolitionists has been greatly underplayed.

He hopes this will be partly rectified by changing the street names.

Mighty rivers that inspired religions, civilisations and explorers are among the ten most threatened in the world.

Rivers such as the Nile, the Indus and the Ganges are dying because of stresses put on them by mankind, the [World Wildlife Federation] says in a report published today.

Each of the ten river systems identified in the report is beset by man-made problems, including water being siphoned off, dams destroying ecosystems and pollution. They flow across six continents and the damage threatens the lives of people and wildlife, the WWF says.

The ten most endangered river basins are said to be the Danube, Yangtze, Rio Grande, Salween, Nile, Indus, Ganges, Plata, Mekong and Murray-Darling. About 41 per cent of the world’s population live in threatened river systems, and of the 10,000 species of freshwater animals and plants at least 20 per cent are already extinct.

Related Links

WWF 10 Rivers report (PDF)

YEREVAN, Armenia -- Inside the tomb-like confines of the Armenian genocide museum, a haunting narrative of images and words unfolds. A list is posted at tour's end of Western nations that have officially recognized the tragedy, minus one major endorsement: the United States.

U.S. lawmakers have recently introduced non-binding resolutions that would declare up to 1.5 million Armenians victims of genocide at the hands of Turkish forces almost a century ago. Support is reported to be strong enough in the House to pass the measure if it goes to a vote; the Senate introduced a similar resolution last Wednesday with 21 co-sponsors.

Historians and analysts here say recognition from Washington is long overdue since evidence validating the case for genocide is "clear-cut, more than factual, and very obvious." But Turkey's priority status as a vital strategic ally in a troublesome region stands in the way.