In the late nineteenth century, Chinese immigrants to the United States faced significant discrimination from White Americans when looking for employment and accommodation. ( 26 ), they tended to live in neighborhoods known as Chinatowns, where there were better opportunities to find jobs and housing. One of the largest Chinatowns was in the city of San Jose, California, but because it was destroyed in a fire in 1887, little has been known about the lives of its inhabitants.
It was long assumed that the food items supplied to San Jose’s Chinatown originated in Hong Kong and China. Recently, however, archaeologists’ analysis of fish bones at a former trash pit has provided evidence that ( 27 ). These particular bones stood out because they belonged to a species known as the giant snakehead. Since the fish is native not to China or Hong Kong but rather to Southeast Asian nations, archaeologists believe it was transported to Hong Kong after being caught elsewhere, then shipped to the United States for consumption.
While the discovery offers insight into the complexity of the trade networks that supplied San Jose’s Chinatown, other discoveries at the site have revealed information about the lifestyles of the neighborhood’s immigrant residents. For example, it seems residents ( 28 ). While the presence of cow remains suggests residents had adopted the Western habit of eating beef, pig bones were the most common type of animal remains archaeologists discovered. As pork was a staple of the diets in their home country, the bones indicate the custom of raising and consuming pigs continued among the immigrants.
Most flowering plants rely on insects for pollination. When an insect makes contact with a flower, it gets pollen on its body. Then, when the insect moves around on the plant or visits another plant of the same species, this pollen comes into contact with the female part of that plant. This pollination process allows plant reproduction to occur. ( 29 ), the plants usually provide something the insect needs, such as a meal of nectar.
Flowering plants succeed in attracting pollinating insects in various ways. For example, some plants draw the attention of flies with the use of brightly colored petals. Researchers recently found that one plant, Aristolochia microstoma, attracts flies by smelling like the dead beetles that some flies lay eggs in. But the plant does more than simply ( 30 ). It temporarily traps them within its flowers; as a fly moves around inside, the pollen on its body spreads onto the plant. The plant also ensures its own pollen gets onto the fly’s body so that the insect can pollinate another plant after being released.
The researchers found the plant actually releases the same chemical that gives dead beetles their smell. Because this chemical is rarely found in plants, the researchers believe the plant has evolved specifically to target flies that use dead beetles as egg-laying sites. They also say that ( 31 ). This comes from the fact that the plant’s flowers are located among dead leaves and rocks on the ground exactly where the flies usually search for dead beetles.
Fences and Ecosystems
Fences help to divide property and provide security, among other things. They can also affect ecosystems. A study in the journal BioScience concluded that fences create both “winners” and “losers” among animal species in the regions in which they are placed. According to the study, generalist species those that can consume a variety of foods and can survive in multiple habitats have little problem with physical boundaries. On the other hand, specialist species, which require unique conditions to survive, suffer from being cut off from a particular food source or geographical area. Because specialist species outnumber generalist species, the study found that for every winner, there are multiple losers.
The impact of fences is not limited to ecosystems. In the mid-twentieth century, Botswana in Southern Africa erected fences to address international regulations designed to prevent the spread of a disease affecting cattle. While the fences have helped protect cattle, they have prevented the seasonal movements of animals such as wildebeests and blocked their access to water. The resulting decline in wildebeest populations threatens not only the ecosystem but also the region’s wildlife tourism. The government’s continued reliance on fences has led to concerns that limiting animal migration will hurt wildlife tourism, which is valuable to Botswana’s economy.
The negative ecological effects of fences can be limited by making changes to them to allow certain animals through. Nevertheless, the study’s authors believe a more fundamental change is necessary. Eliminating all fences, they say, is not a realistic option; instead, fence planning should be carried out with an eye on the big picture. For example, fences are often constructed to obtain short-term results and then removed, but researchers have found that months or even years later, some animals continue to behave as if the fences are still there. Consideration should therefore be given to all aspects of fence design and location to ensure a minimal impact on ecosystems.
In July 1969, there was a short yet intense war between the Central American countries of El Salvador and Honduras following a series of World Cup qualifying soccer matches they played against each other. Although the conflict is often called the “Soccer War,” its causes went far beyond sports.
Honduras is much larger than El Salvador but is far less densely populated. Since the late 1800s, land in El Salvador had been controlled primarily by elite families, which meant there was little space for ordinary farmers. By the 1960s, around 300,000 Salvadorans had entered Honduras illegally to obtain cheap land or jobs. The Honduran government blamed the immigrants for its economic stresses and removed them from their lands, forcing them out of the country. Wealthy Salvadorans feared the negative economic effects of so many immigrants returning home and threatened to overthrow the Salvadoran president if military action was not taken against Honduras. This, combined with border disputes that had existed for many years, brought relations between the countries to a low point.
Tensions were raised further by the media of both countries, which made up or exaggerated stories that fueled their bitterness toward one another. The Salvadoran press accused the Honduran government of cruel and illegal treatment of Salvadoran immigrants, while the Honduran press reported that those same immigrants were committing serious crimes. Such reports were made at the request of the countries’ governments: in El Salvador, the goal was to convince the public that military force against its neighbor was necessary, while in Honduras, the government wanted to gain public support for its decision to force Salvadoran immigrants out of the country.
The World Cup qualifying matches were happening at the same time as the migrant situation was intensifying. On the day of the last match, El Salvador accused Honduras of violence against Salvadorans and cut off relations, and within weeks, El Salvador’s military attacked Honduras, beginning the war. Historians note that the term Soccer War was misleading. At the time, the United States was part of an alliance with Central American nations, but it chose to stay out of the war. In fact, according to an American diplomat, the inaccurate belief that a sporting event was behind the conflict led the US government to overlook its seriousness. Issues such as land ownership, which were the true origin of the conflict, remained unresolved. This led to continued political and social instability and, ultimately, a civil war in El Salvador in the following decades.
Although Braille is the standard writing system for blind people today, this alphabet of raised dots representing letters was not always the only system. Another system, Boston Line Type, was created in the 1830s by Samuel Gridley Howe, a sighted instructor at a US school for blind people. Howe’s system utilized the letters in the standard English alphabet used by sighted people, but they were raised so they could be felt by the fingers. Blind students, however, found it more challenging to distinguish one letter from another than they did with Braille. Nevertheless, Howe believed that the fact that reading materials could be shared by both blind and sighted readers outweighed this disadvantage. His system, he argued, would allow blind people to better integrate into society; he thought Braille encouraged isolation because it was unfamiliar to most sighted people.
It gradually became clear that a system using dots was not only easier for most blind people to read but also more practical, as the dots made writing relatively simple. Writing with Boston Line Type required a special printing press, but Braille required only simple, portable tools, and it could also be typed on a typewriter. Still, despite students’ overwhelming preference for Braille, Boston Line Type remained in official use in schools for the blind because it allowed sighted instructors to teach without having to learn new sets of symbols. Even when Boston Line Type lost popularity, other systems continued to be introduced, leading to what became known as the “War of the Dots,” a situation in which various writing systems competed to become the standard.
One of these, called New York Point, was similar to Braille in that it consisted of raised dots. Its main advantage was that typing it required only one hand. Braille, though, could more efficiently and clearly display capital letters and certain forms of punctuation. There were other candidates as well, and debates about which was superior soon became bitter. Blind people, meanwhile, were severely inconvenienced; books they could read were already in short supply, and the competing systems further limited their options, as learning a new system required great time and effort. At one national convention, a speaker reportedly summed up their frustrations by jokingly suggesting a violent response to the next person who invents a new system of printing for the blind.
The War of the Dots continued into the 1900s, with various groups battling for funding and recognition. In the end, the blind activist Helen Keller was extremely influential in ending the debate. She stated that New York Point’s weaknesses in regard to capitalization and punctuation were extremely serious and that reading it was hard on her fingers. Braille won out, and other systems gradually disappeared. Although the War of the Dots interfered with blind people’s education for a time, it had a silver lining: the intense battle stimulated the development of various technologies, such as new typewriters, that greatly enhanced blind people’s literacy rates and ability to participate in modern society.
