This paper offers a systematic and interdisciplinary analysis of contemporary work on memory externalization, with a particular focus on how technological systems are integrated into human mnemonic practices. Drawing on the frameworks of extended cognition (EXT), the article examines how a wide range of digital technologies participate in memory processes. The paper provides a structured review of how three forms of declarative memory – semantic, episodic, and prospective – are differentially externalized through technological environments. While existing literature often discusses ‘external memory’ in general terms, it rarely distinguishes between the specific functions involved, leading to conceptual imprecision. Addressing this gap, the article develops a refined conceptual taxonomy of memory externalization. Its central contribution is the distinction between two fundamentally different externalization strategies. Cognitive offloading refers to the delegation of information to external systems in order to reduce internal cognitive load. Biloading, by contrast, refers to a strategy of redundancy in which internal and external resources jointly support memory, not by replacement but by reinforcement, enhancing reliability, well-being, autonomy, construction of narrative identity. By clarifying these distinct modes of externalization, the paper shows that memory externalization is not a uniform phenomenon but a complex pattern of cognitive delegation and coordination between neural and technological resources. This conceptual framework offers a more fine-grained understanding of how external resources, such as technology, are integrated into mnemonic processes. The article argues that this taxonomy provides a significant contribution to the contemporary philosophy of memory and opens new avenues for empirical and philosophical research on technologically EXT.

This study explores the impact of a development project, the Maya Train, on the lives of rural youth in Tenosique, Mexico, focusing on their cultural practices and territorial identities amid urban and rural dynamics. It highlights how traditional and modern elements blend in young people’s daily lives, affecting their identities and future aspirations in the face of socioeconomic and environmental changes. The need for public policies that recognize the diversity of rural youth is emphasized, suggesting a reevaluation of social science categories to better understand the complexity of youth and rurality in development contexts. This research underscores the importance of incorporating youth perspectives into sustainable development strategies.

Focusing on two books that seek to renew the study of Native North American history, Indigenous Continent: The Epic Contest for North America by Pekka Hämäläinen (2022), and The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History by Ned Blackhawk (2023), this review article offers an opportunity to survey the current state of the field. Both authors raise two of the major questions that animate the scholarship: that of Native Americans’ agency, widely acknowledged and accepted by the historical community, and that of their rationale for action, for which contrasting visions divide historians. Here, I consider the extent to which Blackhawk’s and Hämäläinen’s emphasis on Native agency may in fact have the effect of obscuring reflection on those logics. Although Hämäläinen, unlike Blackhawk, insists on the risks of teleology and strives to highlight the variety of modes of colonial intrusion, the two historians are united in their renouncement of a form of anthropology that once sought to render the cultural integrity of Native Americans. The analytical lexicon they propose (for example, the term “empire”) sometimes leads to an erasure of cultural difference and a distortion of history. This article therefore argues for a renewed complementarity between history and anthropology.

Decolonization left the future of small, city-states uncertain. Without large domestic markets to turn to, some city-states developed financial industries. Comparing Kuwait and Singapore, I examine how these states developed their financial sectors after decades of colonial underdevelopment. While both states sought to develop international financial centers, Singapore was far more successful in doing so. Kuwait opened numerous merchant-owned, domestic commercial banks but with sluggish rates of growth, while Singapore saw the emergence of new state-run banks; the consolidation, modernization, and growth of privately owned banks; and the establishment of a rapidly growing global financial center. I identify three processes to explain this divergence: (1) the state’s ability to discipline merchant-capitalists; (2) the institutional legacies of colonialism and postcolonial maneuvering; and (3) the incorporation of transnational experts into ruling coalitions. By unearthing the mechanisms of financial development, this article contributes to sociologies of development, finance, expertise, and small states.

This work analyzes Javier Milei’s radical right populism from the perspective of his supporters. Through focus groups, we explore the extent to which there is consensus among those who voted for him in the 2023 primaries regarding his antiestablishment discourse, libertarian economic proposals, and conservative positions on moral issues. We find two points of consensus across all the groups: the charismatic appeal of Milei and a widespread rejection of the political establishment. However, there are notable disagreements on issues like the role of the state in the economy and the legalization of abortion. The majority of participants, referred to as “the rejecters,” neither understand nor support Milei’s views, while a minority, labeled “the fans,” actively defend his ideas. In conclusion, we find that there is no unified identity among Milei’s voters, apart from their common rejection of the establishment that led them to support a political outsider.

This article considers the role of Greek war workers, often called “mercenaries,” in the transmission of culture from the Near East and Egypt to Greece, as well as the impact of their activities on the formulation of their own ethnic identity, from the eighth to the sixth century BCE. It opens with a discussion of the scholarly terminology applied to foreign war workers from ancient Greece to the present, showing its ambiguities and limitations. The evidence for the presence and activities of Greek war workers in the eastern Mediterranean is then presented in a comparative framework, leveraging case studies from other periods, with special attention paid to the army of the Neo-Assyrian kings and the role of Scandinavians in the Byzantine army of the Macedonian dynasty. In conclusion, a broader overview of ethnic formations and subdivisions within imperial armies, drawing on case studies from antiquity, the Middle Ages, and beyond, makes it possible to reevaluate the formation of an Ionian identity in the archaic eastern Mediterranean.

Captivity, migration, and labor markets—rather than “civilizing” missions or anarchic state evasion—defined the southwest frontier of the Ming Empire. Reframing James C. Scott’s Zomia thesis, this article shows that communities in the inhospitable highlands did not simply flee the Ming state; they competed with it by acquiring people, labor, and expertise. Obtained via forceful capture, targeted recruitment, or voluntary defection, some newcomers were valuable for their manual labor, others for their military or reproductive capacities or knowledge of statecraft. This article uses two case studies to illustrate this labor economy. Duzhang, initially acephalous, turned to regime-building through large-scale raiding in the sixteenth century, absorbing Han and non-Han captives and defectors who supplied it with skills and legitimacy. Bozhou, long ruled by tributary chieftains (tusi), drew willing Han migrants and advisers; the Ming countered not just with arms but with litigation, weaponizing law to fracture the Bozhou polity before the decisive war of 1599–1600 that ended with its “barbarization.” Across the frontier, Miao mercenaries leveraged their military prowess to secure valuable resources like land, women, and silver from the highest bidders. The result was a hybrid political field where coercion and consent were blurred, migration surged, and rival regimes—imperial and indigenous—vied fiercely for control of human labor. Ming imperial expansion emerges not as an inevitable conquest but as a pragmatic, improvised, and contingent reaction to relentless competition for labor at its margins.