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The health emergency awakened upon the arrival of COVID-19 virality reified a public health which traces the hard lines of bodies perceived as discrete entities to defend one from the other. From our experiences of (de)confinement in Quebec and in previous and actual fieldwork with healers and vegetal medicines in Cameroon and Colombia, we are here interested in the relations left behind in such a biomedical matrix, namely those transversal biosocial affective ecologies linked to intimate and contagious copresence. To these ends, a deleuzoguattarian anthropological approach enables to think both the striated space of biopower and the smooth space of affective movements and flux of the “viral wave”, respectively the cadenced and measurable rhythms and the rhythms without measure of the ways of connecting to the wave, even through immunological constrictions. We address the question of vegetal breathing more specifically in a world of more or less viable relational, aerial and sonorous assemblages. The goal is to maintain balance in the in-between enabling to deal with the open and the closed in a flexible rather than in a rigid manner, without losing sight of what or who is manifesting themselves. Navigating or rather riding the cusp of the wave ever on the point of breaking, we thus aim to surpass the usual scientific positioning of striation while co-inspiring with the vegetal in (de) confinement. Our discussion in minor or anexact science aims to remain close to the ways in cohabiting with viralities while taking into account the vital aspect of contagion.

Keywords: COVID-19, viral, végétal, molécules, atmosphère, souffle, micro-(bio)politique deleuzoguattarienne, COVID-19, viral, vegetal, molecules, atmosphere, breath, deleuzoguattarian micro-(bio)politics, COVID19, viral, vegetal, moléculas, atmósfera, aliento, micro(bio)política deleuzoguattariana

ABSTRACTThis paper reports the presence of interglacial beetle and pollen assemblages within a Pleistocene peat deposit exposed along the Nuyakuk River of southwestern Alaska. The fossil beetle assemblages contain a number of species not previously identified from eastern Beringian fossil assemblages. The Nuyakuk interglacial deposits are exposed within a 6-m-high terrace along the river, about 4 km beyond the moraine of the penultimate glaciation. Interglacial peat lies within the lowermost meter of the bluff and is overlain by fluvial gravel and loess. Insect fossils were extracted from five peat samples, yielding sixty-seven identified beetle taxa. The insect faunal diversity of the Nuyakuk assemblages is comparable to that found in regional Holocene peat samples. In contrast to assemblages of similar age from interior eastern Beringia, the Nuyakuk fauna contains significant numbers of aquatic, hygrophilous and riparian taxa. Four pollen samples from the Nuyakuk site were analyzed, providing spectra dominated by a few taxa, notably Alnus, Betula, Picea, Gramineae, Cyperaceae, Filicales, and Sphagnum, suggesting a rich alder-birch shrub tundra not much different from the modern regional vegetation. The pollen and insect fossil records also suggest climatic conditions similar to modern.

Ten cores from the Northeast Newfoundland shelf and adjacent continental slope have correlable late Quaternary marine sequences. Late Holocene sediment is olive grey mud, with some ice-rafted debris. The early Holocene is characterised by warmer water microfossil assemblages, abundant ice-rafted carbonate debris, and pollen assemblages indicating open boreal woodland interspersed with tundra. Late and mid-Wisconsinan glacial stades show subarctic planktonic microfossil assemblages, regional sources of tundra pollen, storm reworking of earlier sediment, including till, and shallower water assemblages of benthonic foraminifera and diatoms. Two mid-Wisconsinan interstades are recognised, with marine microfossils similar to the early Holocene. This sequence rests disconformably on earlier (?lllinoian) pro-glacial muds which appear to overlie till.

ABSTRACTA core from Chance Harbour Lake contains a record of the postglacial vegetational history of the area. Pink clay, possibly representing glaciolacustrine sedimentation is overlain by 18 cm of black silt with marl layers that represents a first period of organic accumulation. Analysis of the sediment reveals the following pollen succession : herb taxa, shrub taxa, Populus/ Juniperus and finally Picea. This succession is interpreted as the vegetational response to the initial postglacial warming. Between 815 and 755 cm depth, organic sedimentation is interrupted by pink clay deposition related to a period of slope instability. During this period Picea pollen is replaced by Betula, Salix and AInus while Gramineae and Cyperaceae representation increases, indicating cooler climate. Above this interval, 755 cm of gyttja represents a second period of organic accumulation. Analysis of this sediment reveals the same pollen succession observed in the basal organic silt, indicating warmer climate. The palynological succession typical of the Atlantic Region follows : pine, hemlock, birch, beech and finally spruce and herbs. Seven 14C dates define the chronology. The four lower dates are deemed anomalous, and an alternative chronology for this part is proposed. The climatic cycle of late-glacial warming followed by a cooler interval and finally a return to the initial warming trend at the beginning of the Holocene is associated with the European Allerod/Younger Dryas climatic cycle.

This article explores the North American influence on Canadian climate change policy through a study of three indicators: actions or statements showing Canadian governments' willingness to cooperate on climate policy across borders; actions or statements by Canadian non-state actors recommending that Canada should harmonize its policies with the United States (US); and the extent of policy convergence between Canada and the US. The authors find that climate change policy in Canada at the federal, provincial, and national (joint federal-provincial) levels has been significantly influenced by its North American context, albeit differently at national and sub-national levels and conditioned by domestic political, economic and institutional factors.

ABSTRACTForaminiferal and sedimentological analysis of an underwater stratigraphie section from an Amerindian habitation site at Montague Harbour, British Columbia has further documented late Holocene sea level changes. It appears that part of the documented transgression was caused by tectonic subsidence of the area (Event 1 at approx. 3500 calendar years BP and Event 2 sometime before 1100 calendar years BP) and was recognized in the stratigraphie record by rapid environmental changes. The environmental changes caused by rapid shifts in water depth were recognized through sedimentological and foraminiferal evidence. The tectonic subsidence events, coupled with gentle late Holocene transgression, caused the breaching of Montague Harbour's northwestern channel. The breaching of the channel improved water circulation and increased salinity within the harbour. The salinity changes are reflected in the shift from a low salinity Cribroelphidium excavatum (Terquem, 1876) phenotype "clavata" dominated biofacies (1) at the base of the section to a higher salinity Buccella tenerrima (Bandy, 1950) and Elphidiella hannai (Cushman and Grant, 1927) dominated biofacies (2) at the top. These sea-level changes would have eventually forced local Amerindian settlements inland. The 14C dating of wood and shell, indicates that the recovery of archaeological remains of the Charles culture (ca.6500-3200 years BP) requires investigation in deeper waters.

AbstractThe 1846 American invasion of Mexico sparked an intensely nationalist response among members of Mexico's Liberal and Conservative intelligentsia. This paper documents and analyzes that nationalist reaction. To rally the nation to the cause, Mexican intellectuals constructed and presented to the Mexican masses frightful, negative caricatures and stereotypes of the invading Americans. An abject race of vile and perfidious usurpers, Anglo-Saxon invaders were, the intelligentsia warned, intent upon the spoliation of Mexico and the enslavement of her people. If not stopped by a vigorous prosecution of the war, they warned, the greedy and cruel heretics from the north would soon descend over the whole nation, raping Mexico's daughters along the way and desecrating her holy shrines. Disseminated through newspapers, political pamphlets and broadsides, it was against such caricatures that the allegedly positive features of the Mexican identity were defined and delineated. Against the dark and fiendish stereotypes of the Americans stood, in stark and powerful contrast, the moral and benevolent Mexicans. Where the American caricature evoked the dreadful image of a marauding, degenerate infidel, the Mexican portraiture called forth the equally evocative image of an upright, generous defender. While the Americans fought because of their greed, the Mexicans, it was maintained, resisted for the honour of their families, their Church and their motherland.

AbstractThis paper explores the dynamics of race in Nova Scotia's capital city through the 1840s and early 1850s. Black Haligonians actively sought to escape a legacy of marginalisation through participation in the politics of reform, which involved a dual struggle against oligarchy in Nova Scotia and slavery in America. White society responded with a contradictory blend of accommodation and resistance. Eventually, segregation, rather than integration, prevailed, a result that reflected white prejudice more than black preference.

AbstractThe experience of some 500 Canadian and Newfoundland women who served overseas as Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) nurses during the Great War has been eclipsed by the British record. Sent as auxiliary assistants to trained nurses in the military hospitals, Canadian VADs confronted a complex mix of emotional, physical, and intellectual challenges, including their “colonial” status. As casually trained, inexperienced amateurs in an unfamiliar, highly structured hospital culture, they were often resented by the overworked and undervalued trained nurses, whose struggle for professional recognition was necessarily abandoned during the crisis of war. The frequently intimate physical needs of critically ill soldiers also demanded a rationalisation of the VAD's role as “nurse” within a maternalist framework that eased social tensions for both VAD and patient. As volunteers assisting paid practitioners, the Canadian VAD experience offers new insights into a critical era of women's developing professional identities.