This article addresses past and present bioarchaeological practices and human remains management in Quebec; it focuses on the challenges of creating a bioarchaeological database during a two-phase project initiated in 2018–2019 by the Kahnawake Mohawk Council. Its goal was to help Indigenous communities engaged in repatriation and rematriation procedures. Key information regarding human remains’ current location from the 2018 database served as the basis for a second phase in 2021. Of a total of 345 archaeological sites, storage location could only be confirmed for 35% of 228 Indigenous sites compared to 70% of 77 Euro-Canadian sites. Because Ancestors are the legal property of the finder, the landowner, or both, this missing information poses additional challenges to those wishing to initiate repatriation and rematriation claims. Years of non-Indigenous legal and scientific control created layers of colonial assessments. Current populations must rely on archaeological finds to assess whether they are Ancestors’ “legitimate next-of-kin.” In the meantime, Ancestors remain stored. We show how these problems stem from Quebec's colonial archaeological practices and legal frameworks. We then draw on reciprocity-based archaeology to suggest new ways of taking care of Ancestors that respect Indigenous communities’ beliefs and that involve Indigenous communities in caring for their Ancestors.

We study the influence of the corporate board network on executive pay for 3,395 US firms between 1990 and 2015. We identify three elementary structures through which the interlocking network reflects forms of inter-group reciprocity across firms: restricted exchange, when two executives sit on each other’s respective boards; delayed exchange, when y sits on the board of x after the end of x’s mandate on the board of y; and generalized exchange, when x sits on the board of y, who sits on the board of z, who sits on the board of x. These ties, which are overrepresented, are related to higher executive pay, but are not related to firm performance, which we interpret as a form of rent extraction. We use the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (2002) as a natural experiment to confirm our results. The impact on pay disappears after 2004, once these types of exchanges are constrained.

If many efforts have been undertaken by the scientific community in the last years to better understand the interactions between seniors and their informal support network, understanding of their reciprocal relations remain incomplete. In a context of “young” and “old,” where the later group is becoming larger, coexist longer because of increased life expectancy, and where the redistribution of public resources seems to favour seniors, the private inter-generation solidarity takes on considerable importance. These solidarities are especially expressed by helping each other, and this varies depending on the actors involved. This article attempts to describe the orientation and the content of the reciprocal relationships of seniors and to identify the principal determinants of such relations in Quebec. The data come from the Survey of Aging and Independence study undertaken by Statistics Canada in 1991. The results show that about two out of five seniors have this type of relationship and most often with their spouse. For individuals who no longer have a spouse, children, and particularly a daughter become privileged partners. This study also shows that exchanges of help with friends and/or neighbours prove to be essential when seniors live alone. These actors could even become essential in the future for the upholding of the autonomy of these “grandpa-boomers” who are less well surrounded in later life in terms of descendants than the seniors of today. Finally, very old men with small incomes, living alone in an urban setting and with few or no surviving children are the least likely to experience reciprocity with their entourage.

This article examines the living situations and access to social support for community-dwelling people between the ages of 50 and 65, and who have lived with significant physical impairment for more than 15 years. Data were gathered through in-depth, semi-structured interviews with eight men and women. Findings suggest that coping with long-term impairment may be a lonely experience when the individual lacks a strong network of family and/or friends to offer emotional support. Participants felt their experiences of aging with significant long-term impairment were improved when they shared thoughts, feelings, and problems with others. Findings also show the significance of gender regarding access to social support and point towards the importance of using subjective understanding when ascertaining the level of social support available to individuals. More generally, findings underscore the broader point that individuals aging with impairments are immersed in and wish to maintain reciprocal relationships.

This research broadens the understanding of the relationship between paid work and caregiving by including the contribution of the older “care recipient”. Using selected aspects of social exchange theory and a life course perspective, the importance of giving and receiving for caregivers and care recipients is explored through analyses of focus groups with employed women and interviews with their older mothers. The mothers and daughters focus on the time when they are most indebted to each other. The daughter's employment affects the type and value of contributions from care recipients. The mother's past assistance with housework and caring for children is greatly valued by the daughters. For care recipients, however, being reliant on a busy employee for their care has negative consequences. The mothers emphasize the current situation and under-estimate their past helping. Further research should consider the care recipient's perspective to obtain a broader understanding of the impact of the caregiver's employment in caregiving relationships.