University of Florida Press: Journals
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Food Has No Borders: Methodological Insights from the Forensic Isotopic Profile of a New York City Immigrant
No full textIsotopic analyses of human remains augment the biological profile with geolocation and dietary information, furthering efforts to identify unknown individuals from a forensic context. Here we test the methodological resolution of geolocation (δ18O, 87Sr/86Sr) and dietary (δ13C, δ15N) isotopes of one identified individual who immigrated to New York City from St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG),Lesser Antilles. Isotope-based geolocation estimates did not identify the childhood residency on SVG, but did point to New York City as a possible residence during early adulthood. The individual’s C3-based diet did not significantly change from childhood to early adulthood, illustrating the maintenance of food traditions after the immigration event. This study illustrates that further development of tissue-specific isoscapes incorporating bioavailable foods, drinking water, and cultural traditions is warranted to refine methodological resolution of isotopic applications in forensic anthropology
Embodying Expertise: The Influence of Online Information in Health Decision Making
No full textThis article engages with rhetoric of health and medicine (RHM) scholarship on embodiment and expertise in online health communication to demonstrate how rhetorical tactics help patients make embodied health decisions. This study analyzes 320 online postings, 84 published narratives, 30 surveys and written reflections, and 10 interviews in an online health community for Asherman syndrome (AS), a rare illness that develops after reproductive surgery. The findings of this study highlight how patients incorporate online information into their decision-making practices by accumulating embodied knowledge, tailoring questions, insisting on specific treatments, and switching healthcare providers. This article argues that patients’ rhetorical tactics, when shared and accumulated over time, can transform treatment outcomes
The Association Between Fairness and Judicial Decision-Making: Evidence from Tax Law
No full textEmpirical literature on judicial decision-making has not yet considered the association between the normative value of fairness andjudges’ decisions. Using a sample of tax cases at the Tax Court of Canada (2010–2019) containing 4,420 disputes, we investigate whether a litigant is significantly more likely to obtain a favorable outcome if there is a reference to fairness in the court judgment. Compared to disputes without a mention of fairness in the court judgment, disputes with any mention of fairness have a 51% greater likelihood of a successful outcome. Notably, even when a court judgment mentions fairness not clearly in favor of the taxpayer, taxpayers are still 28% more likely to obtain a successful outcome than taxpayers without a mention of fairness. Together, these findings show that fairness is strongly associated with judicial outcomes and suggest that fairness considerations may influence judges. Furthermore, analysis of the subsample with fairness references reveals that two dimensions of fairness significantlyand positively affect the likelihood of a taxpayer winning a tax dispute (procedural fairness and interpretive fairness), and one dimension of fairness significantly and negatively affects the likelihood of a taxpayer winning a tax dispute (outcome fairness). These results show the contextual and normative importance of fairness
Containing the Blast Radius: Can Congress Save the Code from Realization
No full textThe Supreme Court’s decision in Moore v. United States avoided enshrining realization as a constitutional requirement for taxing income. But four Justices were in favor of doing so, and the majority opinion explicitly avoided deciding the issue. Thus, it is quite plausible to imagine that a future case would garner five votes in favor of constitutionalizing realization. This Article addresses the question whether Congress can do anything preemptively to contain the “blast radius” of such an explosive decision and limit the ensuing “fiscal calamity.
Moore Questions, Some Answers: Fixing the Personal Tax System Despite Constitutional Constraints
No full textMoore v. United States was expected to rule on the constitutional necessity of the tax-law realization requirement originating from Eisner v. Macomber, a potential impediment to progressive tax reform efforts aimed at shutting down the planning techniques of Buy Borrow Die. The various opinions in Moore, however, provided no definitive answer to this core question, instead leaving many more questions. Amid the lingering uncertainty, we argue that various responses to the problem of wealthy Americans’ not needing to pay any taxes remain possible after Moore. An incremental, “mix-and-match” approach to progressive tax reform may best suit the problem and the times
Have Your Cake and Eat It Too, Using Apportionment to Preserve Congress's Tax Power
No full textThe Constitution provides Congress with extremely broad taxing power, and the Supreme Court has recognized that this power is “virtually without limitation.” As budget deficits and income inequality in the United States increase, policymakers are examining options to tax wealth, either through a wealth tax or through taxes on untaxed capital gains. Opponents of these measures have turned to the apportionment requirement in the Constitution and argued that these taxes are not “income taxes” and instead are “direct taxes” that must be apportioned among the states. They further argue that since these taxes cannot be apportioned fairly, any wealth tax or tax on untaxed capital gains would be unconstitutional.
This Article argues that contrary to common beliefs that apportioning a tax is realistically impossible, Congress could pass a direct tax and then apportion the tax among the states. In modern times, Congress can design a system to apportion taxes that is both administrable and fair. Recognizing that apportionment is possible, though in some cases complicated, preserves Congress’s taxing power and allows Congress to debate the actual merits of a particular tax policy
Funerary Veneration of Violated People in the Context of Costly Signaling
No full textDuring the Middle and Late Archaic periods in Indiana, occasional violent interactions led to people being killed and their heads and/or forearms taken, a process often called trophy taking but here called intentional body part removal (IBPR). The IBPR victims were buried by their kin, whose funerary behaviors conveyed information to the community regarding the reinstatement of the deceased into the community despite having died violently. This kind of messaging is costly signaling, whereby an energetically expensive means of information transfer ultimately results in a benefit for the sender and the recipient. The near-normative burial of the IBPR victims is interpreted as kin restoring the deceased’s prestige and mitigating concerns of supernatural repercussions that can emerge when a member of the group dies. The costly signal, therefore, is intended for both the community and the supernatural realm, which are intimately intertwined in animistic populations
Possible Behavioral Changes Associated with Severe Cranial Trauma at Early Bronze Age Bab adh-Dhra’
No full textThe osteological remains of individuals from the Early Bronze Age II–III site of Bab adh-Dhra’, located in modern-day Jordan, indicate comparatively high levels of cranial trauma when analyzed alongside other archaeological collections, and those afflicted may have required varying levels of care from the community. This research examines trauma to specific portions of the skull in two individuals, suggesting prospective consequences and possible effects of antemortem cranial depression fractures (CDFs), of interest to disability studies in bioarchaeology. Both individuals were analyzed via gross morphological examination, digital visualization using computed tomography scans and X-rays, and the Index of Care (a progression of four analytical steps to determine possible short-and long-term effects of trauma). Depending on the location of the CDF, a combination of clinical and neurological data was used to propose possible outcomes. Based on the severity of injuries, these individuals may have required short-term care related to mobility and immediate aid, as well as possible long-term care for impaired neurological/motor function. Despite potential challenges in navigating the social and physical landscapes at Bab adh-Dhra’, the survival of both individuals following their initial trauma suggests that head injury was both an understood and accepted reality
Spatial Organization and Cemetery Structure at Phaleron
No full textThis article uses human craniodental data to evaluate the spatial structure of the Archaic period site of Phaleron in Attica. The site was a burial ground located near the first port of Athens in use from around 700 to 480 B.C.E., a tumultuous time in the history of ancient Greece that witnessed the emergence of city-states and western democratic ideals. A key consideration of the project is understanding the lives of ancient communities beyond just the political elite, and this article seeks to understand how the structure of the burial ground may reflect the social dynamics of the time. Data on 59 cranial nonmetric and 128 dental morphological variables were recorded for approximately 600 individuals. After trait editing, 18 cranial nonmetric and 19 dental morphological variables were used to estimate the Mean Measure of Divergence statistics among Phaleron subsamples. Results indicated the Esplanada burial group comprising 79 bound individuals were phenotypically distinct from the rest of the sample, while other distinctive (D-group) burials identified throughout the site were not significantly different from the combined non-D-group burial sample. Burial sectors also exhibited phenotypic spatial structure reflecting a north-to-south transect of variation. These results may reflect the effects of localized kin structuring of the Phaleron cemetery or an organization based on larger groups relevant to Archaic society
Men are Defenders, Women are Defended? How the War Affects the Public Attitudes Toward Gender Roles in Ukraine
No full textThis article explores how Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has influenced public attitudes toward gender roles, particularly in the context of (gendered) military duty. On the basis of analysis of representative national surveys of leading sociological centers in Ukraine and other data from open sources, the author explores whether there are signs of the militarization of Ukrainian society at the level of (gendered) sociocultural expectations, with an emphasis on public attitudes toward three issues: the military and its role in society including in postwar reconstruction; the roles of men during war; and the roles of women during war. The findings reveal a complex and often contradictory set of gendered attitudes. While legislative norms reinforce a binary of gender roles of men who are “defenders” and women “are defended”, societal attitudes are more fluid: many men resist the prescribed “defender” role, and women’s participation in the military is increasingly accepted. The article contributes to debates on militarization and gender equality by showing that, in the Ukrainian context, war has led to erosion of patriarchal gender norms at sociocultural level rather than to their reinforcement