Human Ecology of Shellfish Exploitation at a Prehistoric Fishing-Farming Village on the Pacific Coast of Mexico

ABSTRACT

Shellfish remains excavated from an early agricultural village on the Pacific Coast of Mexico (Guerrero) indicate a dietary shift from locally obtained estuarine shellfish (1400–1100 BC) to a greater diversity of mollusks collected from more distant marine environments (900–500 BC). The timing of this shift suggests that it occurred as human populations increased and impacted the availability of local estuarine resources. We argue that this prompted the incorporation of a more diverse array of shellfish species harvested at greater distances or obtained via trade, possibly with the use of boats to transport shellfish and other resources back to the village.     

Shellfish Gathering and Conservation on Low Coral Islands: Kiribati Perspectives

ABSTRACT

Low coral island societies in the Pacific have always lived in a precarious environment. Consequently, some writers have stated that people living on atolls and table reefs must have devised effective conservation strategies. Predictions from three optimal foraging models in ethnographic contexts (patch choice, patch sampling, and risk) applied to shellfish gathering in Kiribati, Micronesia, do not support the assumption that human foragers are motivated by a desire to conserve resources. While historical ecology data are sparse, there is little to indicate that coral islanders in the past needed to practice conservation of marine resources, including shellfish.     

Shellfish Exploitation Strategies at the Pinnacle Point Shell Midden Complex,South Africa,During the Later Stone Age

Pinnacle Point, Mossel Bay, is best known for the preservation of the earliest evidence for systematic shellfish exploitation by humans during the African Middle Stone Age (MSA). Comparatively little is known about the shellfish gathering strategies of the Later Stone Age (LSA) inhabitants of this region. This article reports on five LSA sites at the Pinnacle Point Shell Midden Complex excavated by the Centre for Heritage and Archaeological Resource Management in 2006 and 2007. These sites represent 2,000 years of hunter-gather and herder settlement and subsistence in the region. Shellfish remains from the five middens were analyzed in order to understand the exploitation patterns of their LSA inhabitants. Information on the relative abundance of different mollusk species in these assemblages and, where possible, the average size of collected specimens, is then compared with published accounts of shellfish material from other sites along the southern Cape coast. These include roughly contemporary assemblages from Noetzie, Hoffman's/Robberg Cave and sites in the Garcia State Forest, and MSA assemblages from Pinnacle Point, Blombos Cave, and Klasies River Mouth. Regional continuities in gathering strategies focused on a range of bivalves and gastropods, and chronological shifts in the exploitation of rocky shores and sandy beaches, and different littoral zones, are apparent.     

Shellfishing and the Colonization of Sahul: A Multivariate Model Evaluating the Dynamic Effects of Prey Utility,Transport Considerations and Life-History on Foraging Patterns and Midden Composition

ABSTRACT

Archaeological evidence of shellfish exploitation along the coast of Sahul (Pleistocene Australia-New Guinea) points to an apparent paradox. While the continental record as a whole suggests that human populations were very low from initial colonization through early Holocene, coastal and peri-coastal sites dating to that time are dominated by small, low-ranked, littoral taxa to the near-complete exclusion of large, higher ranked, sub-littoral species, precisely the opposite of theory-based expectations, if human populations and predation rates were indeed as low as other data suggest. We present a model of shellfish exploitation combining information on species utility, transport considerations, and prey life-history that might account for this apparent mismatch, and then assess it with ethnographic and archaeological data. Findings suggest either that high-ranked taxa were uncommon along the Pleistocene coastlines of Sahul, or that abundant and commonly taken high-ranked prey are under-represented in middens relative to their role in human diets largely as a function of human processing and transport practices. If the latter reading is correct, archaeological evidence of early shellfishing may be mainly the product of subsistence activities by children and their mothers.     

Shellfish Exploitation in the Western Canary Islands Over the Last Two Millennia

ABSTRACT

The residents of the Canary Archipelago consumed limpets since the arrival of humans ～2500 yrs. ago, and these harvested gastropods were deposited in large coastal shell middens. This work preliminarily explores shell margin oxygen isotope composition (δ¹⁸O) and body size of the black limpet (Patella candei d’Orbigny, 1840) from archaeological sites in the Canary Islands to assess possible seasonal variability and intensity of shellfish collection throughout the late Holocene. The shell margin δ¹⁸O values of 100 shells (radiocarbon dated between ～500 and ～1800 cal. yr BP) were analysed to estimate sea surface temperature (SST) at time of death. Paleotemperature estimates suggest shellfish harvesting was not year-round, and was avoided in the cooler months (when SST?<?20°C). This pattern differs from most higher latitude Mesolithic and Neolithic human groups, which gathered shellfish year-round, targeting winter more heavily. Preliminary body-size measurements suggest shell sizes have experienced a decline from aboriginal times to the present, which possibly resulted from increasing anthropogenic pressures. During aboriginal inhabitation, maximum adult shell size remained stable, suggesting that present-day harvesting practices are more intense than harvesting from aboriginal human groups. This intensive collection has likely diminished the average adult size of limpet populations in the islands by ～27%.     

Multi‐Scalar Practices of the Korean State in Global Climate Politics: The Case of the Global Green Growth Institute

The paper examines the significance of state territoriality and the related multi‐scalar practices of the state in the light of the symptoms of post‐politics exemplified in global environmental governance. The focus rests on the South Korean government's Green Growth (GG) strategy and the efforts to export this strategy as a role model to emerging economies worldwide through the establishment of the Global Green Growth Institute. We begin with the question why the Korean government is going global with a political program that is heavily disputed at home. We then study the practices by which the state manages to maintain its territoriality under the conditions of global climate change. Lastly, we discuss how multi‐scalar practices of environmental governance in the GG strategy are applied by state and non‐state actors both in Korea and abroad.     

Seasonal Patterns of Coastal Exploitation on the Farasan Islands,Saudi Arabia

Here we present the results of the analysis of coastal exploitation patterns in the southern Red Sea during the Middle Holocene. We focus on the shell midden cluster of the Farasan Islands, Saudi Arabia, which comprises over 3,000 shell midden sites. These sites date from 6,500 to 4,500 cal BP and are part of an arid landscape. We focus on one site, JW1727, which provides a snapshot of marine exploitation and will help to understand the use of food resources within the region. Stable isotope values (δ¹⁸O) were collected from the marine gastropod Conomurex fasciatus (Born 1778), which represents 72% of shell weight of JW1727, in order to reconstruct the season of capture. Results demonstrate that 1) every season is represented within the dataset; and 2) there is increased C. fasciatus deposition during the summer and autumn months. This indicates a diet consisting of C. fasciatus throughout the year in combination with other food sources and an increase of the C. fasciatus component during the arid seasons, possibly linked to the unavailability of vegetation. Additionally, size measurements of C. fasciatus were carried out to examine changes in size distribution throughout the occupation of the site that could be related to overexploitation of C. fasciatus. However, no significant trends could be observed. In sum, the results suggest a sustainable and constant habitation of the Farasan Islands despite the highly arid conditions.     

微生物分子生态学技术在文物保护中应用的进展

微生物分子生态学技术近年来在文物保护研究中得到了广泛的应用,已经成为控制文物被微生物侵害的一个不可或缺的工具。本研究较系统地总结了国内外利用微生物分子生态学技术进行文物保护研究的进展,为更有效防治微生物危害侵蚀文物,进而长久的保存文物提供理论支持。     

Eco-socialism and the political ecology of forest conservation in the Greater Khingan Range,China

State-owned forestry enterprises (SOFEs) in China, established during the Maoist era for forest exploitation, have undergone significant reorganization under the Natural Forest Conservation Program (NFCP). In this study, drawing on the perspectives of political ecology and a case study from a SOFE in the Greater Khingan Range in northeast China, we develop an eco-socialist perspective to understand this particular approach to forest conservation. The concept of eco-socialism is mobilized to describe how, as a form of all-encompassing social organization with overwhelming political, social, and economic power in the forestry regions, the eco-restructuring of SOFEs is key to the success of forest conservation. Four eco-restructuring processes have been identified: (1) declining timber sales and increasing central subsidies; (2) restructuring of work-units; (3) creating redundancies; and (4) developing new sustainable economic activities. Furthermore, these eco-restructuring processes, both mandated and supported by the central government, have a significant impact on state-society relationship. While the resources given by the central government allow SOFEs to maintain a stable relationship with some workers by providing them a relatively stable livelihood, the laid-off workers are the major victims of the process, as they suffer from loss of income, economic stability, and social self-esteem. This study enriches the literature by incorporating eco-socialist governmentality into the political ecology of forest conservation and illustrating how the political ecology perspective can be a powerful tool in the collective effort to craft sustainable and socially just futures in China.     

Urban foraging and the relational ecologies of belonging

Through a discussion of urban foraging in Seattle, Washington, USA, we examine how people's plant and mushroom harvesting practices in cities are linked to relationships with species, spaces, and ecologies. Bringing a relational approach to political ecology, we discuss the ways that these particular nature–society relationships are formed, legitimated, and mobilized in discursive and material ways in urban ecosystems. Engaging closely with and as foragers, we develop an ethnographically grounded ‘relational ecologies of belonging’ framework to conceptualize and examine three constituent themes: cultural belonging and identity, belonging and place, and belonging and more-than-human agency. Through this case study, we show the complex ways that urban foraging is underpinned by interconnected and multiple notions of identity, place, mobility, and agency for both humans and more-than-human interlocutors. The focus on relational ecologies of belonging illuminates important challenges for environmental management and public space planning in socioecologically diverse areas. Ultimately, these challenges reflect negotiated visions about how we organize ourselves and live together in cosmopolitan spaces such as cities.     

Rationalization and Conservation: Ecology and the Management of Nature in the United Kingdom

Nature conservation in the UK comprises not only a response to the perceived impacts of rationalization on nature but is itself a dimension of that process of rationalization. The paper describes the development of conservation institutions and ideologies in the UK and considers the ways in which ecology (and particularly ideas of nature as equilibrium) have provided the intellectual framework for conservation. Ecology underpinned the establishment of government conservation institutions, provided intellectual strategies for classifying and objectifying nature, and provided the knowledge base for the control and management of nature. The paper discusses the implications of non-equilibrial ideas in ecology for ideas and practice in conservation and the implications of responses to them in the form of re-rationalization.     

“Much in Blood and Money”: Necropolitical Ecology on the Margins of the Uganda Protectorate

Increasingly, political ecologists invoke the concept of “green grabbing” to refer to the ways in which processes of accumulation by dispossession articulate with various imperatives for environmental protection. This paper traces these contemporary processes to their roots in the colonial era, focusing on how dispossession in the name of environmental protection intersects with complex historical geographies of state formation and internal territorialisation. Drawing upon the case of Mount Elgon in Britain's Uganda Protectorate, in particular, we reconstruct the ways in which the interrelated “birth” of both conservation and transcontinental agrarian markets were intimately connected to the emergence and normalisation of the colonial state itself. In doing so, we propose the term necropolitical ecology as a framework to encompass the ways in which contemporary “green grabs” partially emerge from racialised modes of colonial appropriation, the violence of which often still lingers in agencies and institutions of environmental governance in the contemporary postcolony.     

The use of forest resources in central Iberia during the Late Iron Age. Insights from the wood charcoal analysis of Pintia,a Vaccaean oppidum

Charred woods may be used to effectively reconstruct past wood acquisition strategies. We used anthracological data from the pre-Roman settlement of Pintia (Padilla de Duero, Valladolid) to examine the use of forest resources at the local scale. Palaeoecological data revealed heterogeneous landscapes in the inland northern meseta with environments that offered diverse sources of wood for the inhabitants of Pintia, one of the first cities of inland Iberia. Pines (Pinus pinea/pinaster and Pinus sylvestris/nigra) and both evergreen and deciduous Quercus L. and Juniperus L. were the main taxa identified as both fuelwood and construction elements, but the assemblages and frequencies of these taxa differed depending on their use. We also examined the potential of models from human ecology by considering the frequency, handling time and the relative technological value of each taxon to model how people gathered wood resources. The results suggest that although local availability affected the forest resources that were used by the Vaccaei people, specific taxa were positively selected for specific uses.     

Commentary: New Directions in the History of Ethology

This welcome set of original and instructive papers illuminates and enriches the history of twentieth-century ethology in multiple ways. It adds a wealth of actors, animals, methods, and places to those featured in previous treatments of ethology's development. Some of the papers extend the chronology beyond the heyday of ethology's disciplinary construction to consider exciting developments in the 1970s and beyond. Others consider animal behavior research programs pursued contemporaneously with but independently of mainline ethology's development from the 1930s through the 1960s. Another paper takes us inside an ethologist's archive of visual images to examine the importance of such images (and such a setting) for ethological practice. Collectively, the papers provide new opportunities to contemplate how research programs and disciplines evolve; the relations between concepts, practices, and places; ethology and politics, and much more. At the same time, the individuality of the papers is conspicuous. They have not been constructed on the same model. The authors have followed their own approaches, corresponding to their own, respective interests. A short commentary is not sufficient to do justice to each of them. Rather than attempt to review them one by one, I will consider a pair of themes that may help relate the papers to each other and to the history of ethology: (1) the ongoing challenge of defining ethology and identifying who the ethologists were (or are); (2) the practices and places of animal behavior study.     

Explaining prehistoric variation in the abundance of large prey: A zooarchaeological analysis of deer and rabbit hunting along the Pecho Coast of Central California

Three main hypotheses are commonly employed to explain diachronic variation in the relative abundance of remains of large terrestrial herbivores: (1) large prey populations decline as a function of anthropogenic overexploitation; (2) large prey tends to increase as a result of increasing social payoffs; and (3) proportions of large terrestrial prey are dependent on stochastic fluctuations in climate. This paper tests predictions derived from these three hypotheses through a zooarchaeological analysis of eleven temporal components from three sites on central California’s Pecho Coast. Specifically, we examine the trade-offs between hunting rabbits (Sylvilagus spp.) and deer (Odocoileus hemionus) using models derived from human behavioral ecology. The results show that foragers exploited a robust population of deer throughout most of the Holocene, only doing otherwise during periods associated with climatic trends unfavorable to larger herbivores. The most recent component (Late Prehistoric/Contact era) shows modest evidence of localized resource depression and perhaps greater social benefits from hunting larger prey; we suggest that these final changes resulted from the introduction of bow and arrow technology. Overall, results suggest that along central California’s Pecho Coast, density independent factors described as climatically-mediated prey choice best predict changes in the relative abundance of large terrestrial herbivores through the Holocene.     

A microdynamics approach to geographies of violence: Mapping the kill chain in militarized conservation areas

Within segments of the overlapping fields of political ecology and political geography, there is an emerging consensus that direct physical violence is over-studied, and that it cannot be analytically separated from other forms of violence. This article argues the opposite, namely, that direct physical violence remains understudied, and that analyzing it separately is warranted to grasp its specificities. To corroborate this argument, the article examines the study of green militarization and green violence. Whereas a substantial part of this literature discusses direct physical violence, most studies focus on broader conditions and discourses of violence, without empirically demonstrating how they feed into the production of direct physical violence. Consequently, these studies do not accurately map the entire “kill chain”. A case study of violence in Virunga National Park, in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, demonstrates the analytical merits of studying direct physical violence through a “microdynamics” approach, implying the detailed study of specific acts of violence and how they were committed. Far from distracting from broader conditions, structures and histories of violence, a microdynamics approach provides an entry point for understanding how these dimensions feed into the production of direct physical violence, and how this violence interacts with other forms of violence. In addition, it allows for a more accurate understanding of how the kill chain is constituted in time and space. The article concludes that acknowledging the particularities of different modalities of violence, instead of conflating them, will significantly advance the study of geographies of violence.     

State power and protected areas: Dynamics and contradictions of forest conservation in Madhya Pradesh, India

The traditionally coercive and state-controlled governance of protected areas for nature conservation in developing countries has in many cases undergone change in the context of widespread decentralization and liberalization. This article examines an emerging “mixed” (coercive, community- and market-oriented) conservation approach in managed-resource protected areas and its effects on state power through a case study on forest protection in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. The findings suggest that imperfect decentralization and partial liberalization resulted in changed forms, rather than uniform loss, of state power. A forest co-management program paradoxically strengthened local capacity and influence of the Forest Department, which generally maintained its territorial and knowledge-based control over forests and timber management. Furthermore, deregulation and reregulation enabled the state to withdraw from uneconomic activities but also implied reduced place-based control of non-timber forest products. Generally, the new policies and programs contributed to the separation of livelihoods and forests in Madhya Pradesh. The article concludes that regulatory, community- and market-based initiatives would need to be better coordinated to lead to more effective nature conservation and positive livelihood outcomes.     

秦俑二号坑出土一件彩绘跪射俑的保护修复

本研究针对秦俑二号坑出土的一件彩绘跪射俑进行了保护修复,是在考古出土现场保存状况、文物病害及病害机理科学分析的基础上进行的现场保护与实验室保护修复。现场保护重在稳定文物状态和应急处理;实验室保护则依据文物保护程序进行保护修复,在进行文物表面清理工作后,使用AC33(丙烯酸乳液)及PEG200(聚乙二醇)加固彩绘层,使用环氧树脂对陶俑进行了粘接修复,收到了良好的效果。此彩绘陶俑的保护修复工作可为以后大型彩绘文物的保护修复提供参考和借鉴。