The Twenty-First Century Federalist

It is unlikely a “third party” will arise to threaten the two-party duopoly that has governed American politics since 1828. It is, however, possible that a new political movement will arise within the Republican Party, stake out new ideological terrain, and make a bid for control of the party apparatus. Movements arise when parties fail to address public challenges, policy entrepreneurs recognize the opportunity, and resources are available to make a bid feasible. Today the two parties have failed to address the increasing fragmentation of American public life. They have, in fact, contributed to fragmentation by appealing to identity politics and by attempting to use the national government as a tool of legal and judicial force against their opponents. A new political movement centered on federalism—the restoration of state and local government and a balance of power between the states and the national government—offers the hope of allowing cultural pluralism to flourish within an overarching political unity. It remains for enterprising candidates to recognize the opportunity and donors to fund them.     

Major Fallacies Surrounding Stone Artifacts and Assemblages

While lithic objects can potentially inform us about past adaptations and behaviors, it is important to develop a comprehensive understanding of all of the various processes that influence what we recover from the archaeological record. We argue here that many assumptions used by archaeologists to derive behavioral inferences through the definition, conceptualization, and interpretation of both individual stone artifact forms and groups of artifacts identified as assemblages do not fit squarely with what we have learned from both ethnographic sources and analyses of archaeological materials. We discuss this in terms of two fallacies. The first is the fallacy of the “desired end product” in stone artifact manufacture, which also includes our ability to recognize such end products. The second fallacy has to do with the notions that lithic assemblages represent simple accumulations of contemporary behaviors and the degree to which the composition of the depositional units we study reliably match the kinds of activities that took place. Although it is beyond the scope of this paper to offer a comprehensive set of new methodologies and theoretical perspectives to solve these problems, our goal here is to stress the importance of rethinking some of our most basic assumptions regarding the nature of lithic objects and how they become part of the archaeological record. Such a revision is needed if we want to be able to develop research questions that can be addressed with the data we have available to us.     

旧石器时代石斧的认知考古学研究

艺术应始于人类的早期石斧,手斧的性择标识理论似乎解答了手斧的所有问题,但对该理论还有待更进一步的验证。     

New Stone Artifacts Discovered by Xardai Co Lake

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Contemporary Archaeology in Transit: The Artifacts of a 1991 Van

This article uses an assemblage of recently abandoned material culture as a medium for exploring the world in which we all live. First it is suggested that if we are to study contemporary material culture, then our methodology must be collaborative, multivocal, and innovative. Next, an assemblage of materials recovered from a 1991 Ford Transit van, used by archaeologists in the field for 8 years, is investigated as a case study. The vehicle is epistemologically dismantled, and it is demonstrated that the car part should be treated as a diagnostic artifact. A close investigation of the recovered small finds uncovers explicit information about how the van was used and by whom. As with all people in every era, archaeologists too, leave material evidence of their passing. This evidence can be subversive and brings up questions about how archaeology is practiced today. Additionally, it is found that limitations to contemporary material culture also arise and esoteric knowledge can sometimes trump archaeological inquiry.     

Taking Southern African Ceramic Studies into the Twenty-First Century: A Zimbabwean Perspective

I advocate in this contribution the need to emphasize the social milieu of pottery production, use, and distribution as a means of gaining a meaningful understanding of the significance of ceramics from archaeological contexts. Je préconise dans cette contribution le besoin de souligner le milieu social de la production, de l'emploi et de la distribution de poteries en tant que moyens de gagner une compréhension sérieuse de l'importance de céramiques venant de contextes archéologiques.     

安图沙金沟旧石器遗址发现的石器研究

安图县沙金沟遗址于2006年发现,遗址位于沙金河右岸第Ⅲ级阶地上,在地表和含角砾的黄色亚黏土层中共发现石器82件,原料以黑曜岩为主,包括石核、石片、石叶、细石叶、二类和三类工具(刮削器、雕刻器、尖状器和砍砸器等)。遗址的地质年代推测为晚更新世的晚期,即旧石器时代晚期。     

邯郸石器时代考古及其相关问题

本文对建国50多年来邯郸境内的旧、新石器时代考古工作做了回顾性的综述,同时,对今后邯郸区域史前考古的研究工作提出了一些方向性的建议,如:进一步做好现有资料的纵深研究,从自然生态环境方面分析古人类的生存状况,及与其他学科研究成果的结合研究等。     

和龙市柳洞旧石器地点发现的石制品研究

2002年5月,吉林大学边疆考古研究中心在图们江流域进行考古调查时发现和龙市柳市洞旧石器地点。石制品分布在高出河水面20米的二级阶地上,共获得石制品89件,有石核、石片、石叶、细石叶、刮削器、雕刻器等。该地点的石制品特征可代表该流域的一种工业类型,与周边地区的旧石器有着密切的联系。该地点的地质年代应相当于晚更新世的晚期,旧石器时代的晚期。     

Experimental Design and Experimental Inference in Stone Artifact Archaeology

Lithic researchers rely heavily on experimentation to infer past behaviors and activities based on stone artifacts. This paper explores the analogical nature of archaeological inference and the relationship between experimental design and inference validity in stone artifact experimentation. We show that actualistic flintknapping lacks vital aspects of scientific experimentation, and thus has inherent inferential issues of analogical adequacy and confidence. It is argued that a greater emphasis on hypothesis construction and variable control is needed in order to establish sound referential linkages upon which constructive analogic inferences about the past can be built.     

Managing,Valuing, and Protecting Heritage Resources in the Twenty-First Century: Peatland Archaeology,the Ecosystem Services Framework,and the Kyoto Protocol

Abstract

This paper argues that the development of the Ecosystem Services framework, which has recently emerged as an internationally recognized framework for valuing ‘the ‘natural capital’ of ecosystems, presents a number of opportunities for heritage management and the archaeological record, arguing that the inclusion of archaeological and palaeoenvironmental ‘value’ within this framework presents an opportunity to incorporate heritage alongside a range of other critical ‘services’. It presents a short case study focusing on the problems facing the preservation of peatland archaeological sites and deposits in situ alongside developments within peatland conservation and restoration initiatives partly driven by the ability of healthy, functioning peatlands to sequester carbon and hence mitigate climate change. It is argued that this drive towards peatland re-wetting may bring both positive benefits and opportunities for heritage management but also presents a number of practical issues, which now require active engagement from the archaeological community.     

Concentration Camp Buildings as Artifacts: The Archaeology of Buildings in the Mauthausen-Gusen Complex

This article deals with the interpretation and display of the buildings and other built structures at the Mauthausen concentration camp. After decades of neglect the many standing buildings of the Mauthausen-Gusen complex are now being analyzed as a source of information about the Nazi terror system. This shift is part of a change in what is regarded as important and authentic at such sites and is connected to the educational approach now taking center stage. The archaeological investigation of buildings plays an important role in this process. Through many examples drawn from the killing and cremation area, the kitchen buildings and elsewhere, the article goes on to demonstrate both the explanatory potential of the architecture and how it is being presented in today’s memorial landscape.     

Beyond Brassens: Twenty-First Century Chanson and the New Generation of Singer-Songwriters

This article considers the relevance of the notion of ‘generation’ for the study of cultural shifts in the production and critical reception of singer-songwriters in contemporary France, in the period 2005–12. Defining a ‘generation’ as an age cohort sharing socio-cultural characteristics and patterns of socialisation, it focuses on Camille, Benjamin Biolay, La Grande Sophie, Barbara Carlotti and other singer-songwriters who were all born in ‘the long 1970s’, and who achieved notoriety and success in the period in question. It demonstrates that the traditional discourse of chanson, dominant since the 1950s, defined by literariness and embodied by Georges Brassens, is being replaced by an emphasis on seduction, Anglophilia and multi-instrumental sophistication. Although these features have been central to the compositions of a number of ‘older’ singer-songwriters, including Serge Gainsbourg, Françoise Hardy and Alain Souchon, the deployment by today's critics of the notion of ‘generation’ helps to give superficial coherence and symbolic originality to the younger artists who uphold these values and techniques. As a result, and because the music reviews referenced in this article are extracted from ‘high-brow’ magazines (including Télérama), this article also considers the changing place of chanson in the elite discourse of contemporary France.     

邯郸考古世纪回眸与前瞻

本文对20世纪邯郸考古工作做了全面梳理与回顾,总结了邯郸现代考古出现以来经历的三个阶段,概述了20世纪邯郸考古的主要发现及重要研究成果,并就21世纪邯郸考古所面临的主要任务、重要课题及发展方向作了综论及展望。     

吉林镇赉北山遗址发现的石制品研究

1998年5月,吉林大学考古系的部分师生和镇赉县文物管理所的同志对该遗址进行复查时,发现石制品111件。经整理研究,将石制品划分为细石器和非细石器两类。发现的石制品中有石片、细石叶、细石叶石核、刮削器、石镞、雕刻器、舌形器和磨制石器等,是新石器时代早期的典型细石器工业,为新、旧石器时代的过渡研究提供了一批宝贵的实物资料。