Progress in the human geography of the Maghreb

Sutton and Lawless review a selection of the prolific literature on the Maghreb's human geography published from the late 1970s onward. The pedigree of the discipline in Maghreb was established by several notable geographers who lived, researched, and wrote there. Augustin Bernard's writings on rural settlement, his atlas, and study of Algeria are still cited. Jean Despois's regional study with Raynal and his work on Tunisia, together with the detailed rural research of Jean Poncet, provides a particularly rich coverage for that country. Jean Dresch's early work on Morocco exemplified an early critique of the contemporaneous uncritical colonial human geography. The Sahara's fascination also inspired pioneering studies by Robert Capot-Rey. The work of these notables and others provided a solid background of geographical literature on the Maghreb to be supplemented, criticized, and challenged by more recent researchers, sometimes pupils of the above individuals, and increasingly North African by birth. The tradition of general texts on the Maghreb has continued, though increasingly with systematic approaches replacing regional appraisals. The geography of the decolonization of the Maghreb by Isnard has been replaced by a study summarizing recent collaborative work by a team of French geographers. The Saharan extensions of the Maghreb states have often been linked in general works, sometimes being juxtaposed against the Maghreb as in the essays offered to Jean Despois. Lawless and Findlay's collaborative study juxtaposes geographical studies of each country's economic development with political scientists' evaluations of their sociopolitical development. This review limits itself largely to geographers and geographical journals, only occasionally including significant works from other subject areas, and to 1977-1978 publications, with a few notable exceptions. The spatial juxtaposition of contrasting approaches to economic development, liberal market economy approaches by Tunisia and Morocco arguably leading to dependency, and centrally-planned strategies by Algeria and Libya resulting in bureaucratic constraints serves to offer the Maghreb as a pertinent case-study region for the applied geographer of developing countries.     

Nationalist policy-making and crony capitalism in the Maghreb: the old economics hinders the new

Twenty years on from the Arab Maghreb Union (UMA)'s creation, the European Community, which encouraged the move, has long evolved into the European Union, including old eastern European members which two decades ago seemed to be behind many UMA members in their potential to suck in Financial Direct Investment. While North African economies have continued to make significant progress, their structures and practices have not evolved nearly as quickly as seemed likely two decades ago. This article focuses on the political economy aspects of North Africa's perceived problems of drawing in investment and promoting regional integration: the domestic politics of the Euro-Med's Maghrebi partners, not only in the sense that 'nationalist' policy-making has a major impact on economic outcomes but also in the prevalence of crony capitalism across the region.     

Geographical Patterns and Some Causes of Spatial Econoetic Variations in Perth,Western Australia

The 54 government senior high schools (SHS) in the Perth metropolitan area provide enough points for a spatial analysis in the search for indicators and correlations that may be used in relation to the results of the Australian scaling test (AST) and the tertiary entrance examination (TEE) in Western Australia. Spatial data are shown by maps, and statistical correlation pairings by graphs. The findings emphasize the great importance of socio-economic factors, such as parents' own education and employment, income and housing standard, as influences on the children's educational choices and results. The disadvantaged position of Aborigines in this respect is also stressed. This type of analysis may help in the planning of new school locations and in the choice of subjects to be offered by each school according to the suburb's socio-economic characteristics. From this analysis emerges a strong geographical pattern which separates a western prosperous belt from an underprivileged eastern belt. This separation has a long history and is due to a combination of landscape morphology, soil quality and drainage.     

反山、瑶山墓地:年代学研究

本文主要通过随葬玉器的分析,对反山、瑶山墓地的墓葬作出了年代学的研究,认为瑶山墓地的起始和结束年代比反山墓地要早。     

Anglo‐Saxon Style Pottery from the Northern Netherlands and North‐Western Germany: Fabrics and Finish,Regional and Chronological Patterns,and their Implications

This paper presents the results of a study of Anglo‐Saxon style pottery in the northern Netherlands and north‐western Germany, involving macroscopic and microscopic analysis of fabrics and finish. Both regions show similar developments in form and decoration in the pottery of the fourth and fifth centuries ad , the late Roman and Migration period, resulting in the typical decoration and shapes that are known as the Anglo‐Saxon style. In the northern Netherlands, this style is traditionally associated with Anglo‐Saxon immigrants. It has, however, been suggested that this style was, rather, part of an indigenous development in areas in the northern Netherlands where occupation was continuous, though influenced by stylistic developments in north‐western Germany. That hypothesis is supported by the analysis of fabrics and finish presented here. The characteristic of fabrics and surface treatment indicate technological continuity. The use of local clay sources for Anglo‐Saxon style pottery and for contemporary regional types indicates that most of the Anglo‐Saxon style pottery in the northern Netherlands was not brought by Anglo‐Saxon immigrants or as imports, but must have been made locally. That applies to settlements with continuous habitation, as well as settlements in the coastal area that were not inhabited during the fourth century ad .     

Cutmarks on Capsian human remains: implications for Maghreb Holocene social organization and palaeoeconomy

In 1930, the remains of five adults, one subadult, and one infant were excavated from Site 12, a ca. 8000 bp Capsian escargotière in Algeria. Recently, cutmarks were found on several postcranial bones of each of the adult individuals. In an attempt to reconstruct the burial circumstances, archival materials including photographs and field notes were retrieved from the State Historical Society of Wisconsin and the Logan Museum at Beloit College, and a detailed study of the cutmarks was carried out. The cutmarks are associated mostly with long bones and skulls, while two individuals show cutmarks on the thorax. Using theories relating secondary burial practices to a nomadic lifestyle, it is hypothesized that the individuals died away from camp. Initial preparations, while awaiting transport to Site 12, involved limited exposure, followed by decapitation, dismemberment, and possibly defleshing of the thorax and removal of the internal organs. At Site 12, a formal burial ceremony was conducted during which red ochre was used. In some cases the dismembered extremities were placed in the grave with the rest of the body, but several skulls and long bones are missing. It is not known what the missing bones were used for, although Capsian groups are known for modifying human bones for either utilitarian or ritual purposes. This is the first time that cutmarks on human remains are reported for this area and period. The idea that Capsian people practiced decapitation and dismemberment has been suggested before, based on observations on other sites, however. Studies of human skeletal material from the Maghreb, often excavated decades ago, may therefore reveal similar types of evidence. It is suggested that such studies will contribute significantly to our understanding of Holocene Maghreb burial practices, and our ability to reconstruct social organization and palaeoeconomy. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

山东地区商文化编年与类型研究

本文在全面分析山东商文化陶器演变的基础上 ,对山东地区商文化遗址进行了统一编年。商文化在二里岗上层晚段开始出现于鲁西地区 ,并由此向东扩展到鲁北、鲁中南地区 ,殷墟一期前后到达淄河流域 ,四期时已进至淄流域及沂河西岸。商文化在山东各地呈现着强烈的相似性 ,又有局部的文化特色 ,表明了商文化在山东地区可能存在着不同的文化类型     

Geographical Metanarratives in Russia and the European East: Contemporary Pan-Slavism

A specialist on Russian geopolitical metanarratives investigates the re-emergence of Pan-Slavism in the ideological landscape of contemporary Russia. Arguing that it is a heterogeneous assemblage of both mutually antagonistic and complementary narratives about the unity of Slavic peoples, the author posits that Pan-Slavism's durability lies not in its conceptual coherence but rather its emotional appeal to disparate Slavic peoples in the former Soviet Union as well as Eastern and Southeastern Europe. After briefly tracing the history of Pan-Slavism from its 17th-century roots through World War I into the Soviet period, he explores the metanarrative's capacity to take modern Russia's geopolitical thinking in new directions, including the potential to replace Russians' center-periphery worldview with a that of a cosmopolitan network of kindred nations affording Russia greater access to the European community.     

Geographical practice in Mexico: the cultural geography project

Since Mexican geography was initiated, its practice has been closely related to the objectives and activities of the hegemonic regimes and ruling activities within the territory. A short passage through our history might clarify why we have not been able to avoid conservatism, illustrate how cultural geography has developed in recent years, and explain why Mexican geographers are so dependent on theory from abroad. Historically, just like in other territories, mapping and teaching were the main practices developed with different targets and different contexts, in the evolution of the country. Since colonization in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, new discoveries and the display of new natural resources has demanded the knowledge and register of new places, especially on maps. This activity was primarily undertaken by foreigners: the Spaniards colonized and conquered new spaces and resources, seizing and exporting minerals like gold and silver, tropical products such as sugar cane, coffee and cacao, and animals such as the beaver (Wolf 1994).     

The Whole Tooth and Nothing but the Tooth: Or why Temporal Resolution of Bone Collagen May Be Unreliable

The carbon (δ¹³C) and nitrogen (δ¹⁵N) isotope ratios of human bone collagen have been used extensively over the last 40 years to investigate the diet of past populations. It has become apparent that bone collagen can give an unreliable temporal dietary signature especially in juveniles. With higher temporal resolution sampling of collagen from tooth dentine, it is possible to identify short-term changes in diet previously invisible in bone. This paper discusses the inherent problems of using bone collagen for dietary studies and suggests better sample choices, which can make our interpretations more robust, using breastfeeding and weaning as an example.     

The Cultural Project: Formal Chronological Modelling of the Early and Middle Neolithic Sequence in Lower Alsace

Starting from questions about the nature of cultural diversity, this paper examines the pace and tempo of change and the relative importance of continuity and discontinuity. To unravel the cultural project of the past, we apply chronological modelling of radiocarbon dates within a Bayesian statistical framework, to interrogate the Neolithic cultural sequence in Lower Alsace, in the upper Rhine valley, in broad terms from the later sixth to the end of the fifth millennium cal BC. Detailed formal estimates are provided for the long succession of cultural groups, from the early Neolithic Linear Pottery culture (LBK) to the Bischheim Occidental du Rhin Supérieur (BORS) groups at the end of the Middle Neolithic, using seriation and typology of pottery as the starting point in modelling. The rate of ceramic change, as well as frequent shifts in the nature, location and density of settlements, are documented in detail, down to lifetime and generational timescales. This reveals a Neolithic world in Lower Alsace busy with comings and goings, tinkerings and adjustments, and relocations and realignments. A significant hiatus is identified between the end of the LBK and the start of the Hinkelstein group, in the early part of the fifth millennium cal BC. On the basis of modelling of existing dates for other parts of the Rhineland, this appears to be a wider phenomenon, and possible explanations are discussed; full reoccupation of the landscape is only seen in the Grossgartach phase. Radical shifts are also proposed at the end of the Middle Neolithic.