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Social Structure

Three reddish-brown fragments of potter featuring a human face and geographic patterns.
Source

Lapita Pottery from the Santa Cruz Islands

This pottery sherd dates from around 1000 BCE and is from the Lapita culture, the likely common ancestor of contemporary Polynesian cultures. This sherd was found in the Santa Cruz Islands, part of the Solomon Islands.

A green background with counters on a counting board.
Methods

History of Pre-Modern Math

Before the widespread adoption of Arabic numerals, medieval and early modern Europeans added, subtracted, multiplied, and divided using a type of abacus known as a counting board and only afterwards recorded the results of their ca

A table with popular world development indicators for four Caribbean countries dating from 1972, 1980, 1990, 2000, 2010, and 2020.
Teaching

Economic Diplomacy in the Caribbean Since the Second World War

Economic affairs are an essential part of world history and, even more so, in contemporary times after World War II, when globalization processes with higher levels of interdependency and proximity among individuals and countries are increasingly observed.

The red cover of the treaty, which reads "Economic Integration: The O.E.C.S. Experience." The top center has a circular symbol with triangles and waves that reads "OECS." In the bottom left it reads "Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Central Secretariat St. Lucia March 1988."
Source

OECS Treaty Publication Fragments

The OECS published in 1988 a booklet explaining the treaty that founded it (OECS 1988). A fragment is included in the photos here.

A blue, circular icon with an image of a document in the center. Underneath are the words "view document"
Source

Transcript of the Treaty of Basseterre of 1981

To capture the diplomatic side of Caribbean economic history from the point of view of the governments, official documents describing economic policies, joint strategies, and related decision-making processes in the Caribbean

A table with popular world development indicators for four Caribbean countries dating from 1972, 1980, 1990, 2000, 2010, and 2020.
Source

Popular World Development Indicators for Four Caribbean Countries

Raw numerical data may be pursued to track historical behavior through socioeconomic and demographic indicators.

Construction drawing of a social housing high-rise in La Duchère, 1960.
Teaching

Social Capital in World History: Lyon and Pittsburgh as Examples

Lyon, France, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, are connected by the thread of social capital, or people power.  This essay situates social capital as an non-financial asset possessed by people who have little wealth, but who use a variety of strategies to facilitate community improvements.

Construction drawing of a social housing high-rise in La Duchère, 1960.
Source

Construction drawing of a social housing high-rise in Duchère

This image shows the standardized framework of a social housing high-rise, dubbed une cité.  These manufactured housing units were constructed quickly in French suburbs to accommodate a rapidly growing population.

Plans for La Duchère, in western Lyon, c. 1960.  Lyon Municipal Archives, Lyon, France.
Source

Plans for Social Housing in France

Most of the new housing was constructed on cities’ fringes, or on adjacent farmland just outside the central city, by a quasi-public company known by its French initials SCIC (Société central immobilière de la Caisse des dépôts, or Central Real Estate Company of the Deposits and Consignments Fund

The mayor of Lyon, France, Louis Pradel, drives a bulldozer to initiate construction of social housing in La Duchère, in the city’s western edge, 1958.
Source

The mayor of Lyon, France drives a bulldozer to initiate construction of social housing

The headline reads, in English, “Aboard a bulldozer, Mr.