The Siberian Curse: How Communist Planners Left Russia Out in the Cold. Fiona Hill and Clifford Gaddy

An American geographer examines the return migration of ethnic Kazakhs from Mongolia to their ancestral homeland of Kazakhstan, and the adjustment problems confronting them upon return. This specific example of "diasporic return migration" is emblematic of a process affecting nearly every state within the former USSR, and is especially acute in Central Asia. The study, based on the author's interviews, explores obstacles to the integration of Mongolian-Kazakhs into Kazakhstani society, and raises the question of whether this process might best be conceptualized as "repatriation" or "patriation." Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: F22, J61, O18, R23. 54 references.     

Gender and social change: new forms of independence for Simbu women

This article discusses gender roles and behavior and changing relationships between the sexes resulting from Western influence on the Simbu people in Papua New Guinea. Sexual segregation and taboos, cult secrecy, and male domination of women have weakened during 50 years of contact with the West. The observations upon which this paper is based were made during 1958-65 and through individual and group interviews obtained in 1976, 1984, 1985, and 1987. Simbu women have been self-sufficient while appearing to comply with male dominance and group claims. More younger women are now asserting their individuality. With Westernization, many home crafts have been abandoned. Women have responded to new ideas and economic goals by promoting the education of their children. A notable few women have achieved professional positions or business success and have joined a new class of elite citizens with opportunities to expand their lives in ways formerly unimaginable. Both urban men and women retain close ties with their rural families. Urban men depend upon rural support groups to achieve their political ambitions. When successful, these men distribute favors to their rural supporters. Urban women may incorporate rural relatives into their urban households, but many reject their own domestic roles. This new urban elite is still in the formative stage and it is impossible to predict whether it will ultimately reject its rural foundation to embrace an urban multi-ethnic affiliation.     

Ethnographic Understandings of Gender and Economic Transition in Siberia: Implications for Planners and Policy Makers

Economic transition has been defined by neo-liberal restructuring policies and understandings. Using ethnographic data from Omsk, Russia, I examine structural adjustment policy implementation in the context of socially constructed gender norms. These policies have complicated implications for women and men's economic survival. The ethnographic understandings gained from interviews with women provide vital information that would improve planning processes in Omsk. For example, using an economic gardening approach to support women's small business development and workforce development targeting survivors of violence would advance women's economic self-sufficiency. I suggest that if planners use ethnographic understandings they will be able to more effectively respond to planning challenges such as poverty, education and health care issues.     

The relative abundance of Onthophagus species in British assemblages of dung beetles as evidence for Holocene climate change

Abstract

The ratio between scarabaeid beetles of the genera Aphodius and Onthophagus in European dung faunas is influenced by summer climate, such that individuals of Aphodius species predominate in Northern Europe but are largely replaced by Onthophagus species in the Mediterranean region. Detailed study of insect assemblages from Neolithic to Saxon date showed a changing ratio between the genera with time. For the Neolithic and most of the Bronze Age, individuals of Onthophagus contributed around 16% of the sum of Aphodius and Onthophagus, but during the Iron Age the proportion of Onthophagus fell to around 3% and remained low. This decline of Onthophagus was probably the result of a slight cooling of mean summer temperature and agricultural intensification. However, the proportion of Onthophagus peaked at over 60% during the middle Bronze Age around 1450 BC. This is argued as reflecting a brief warm episode with mean July temperatures for Central Southern England at least 2°C warmer than at present.     

满族文化对盛京城规划建设的影响——兼论盛京城在满族和清代都城史上的地位

努尔哈赤父子最终成为大明王朝的掘墓人.镇守辽东三十年的总兵李成梁,由此被扣上养虎遗患的罪名.本文通过反思明朝在辽东民族政策的得失,以及透视努尔哈赤的文韬武略,进而得出明亡负主要责任者不应该是李成梁,而应该是昏庸的万历皇帝及其继任者的结论.     

Optical spectroscopy as a rapid and low-cost tool for the first-line analysis of glass artefacts: a step-by-step plan for Roman green glass

Archaeometric research on glass artefacts is continuously evolving and is converging towards a multidisciplinary research domain where different types of techniques are applied depending on the questions asked and the circumstances involved. The technique described in this work is optical spectroscopy. The benefit of this technique being the possibility of building up a knowledge database for a large amount of material in a relatively short period of time and with a relatively limited budget. This is of particular interest for the investigation of extensive and/or unexplored glass collections where a first-line analysis of artefacts could facilitate the selection of material needing further and more detailed examination.     

NMR as a new tool for cultural heritage application: The provenance of ancient white marbles

Identifying the origin of marble used in antiquity brings back to light details of the economic, social and political organization of classical societies, and characterizing in depth the chemistry of marble is key to discovering its provenance. Beyond X‐ray diffraction, which could reveal the presence of discriminant secondary crystalline phases and the quantification of accessory minerals combined with a multivariate analysis approach, solid‐state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) enables one to recognize the local structure arrangement of both crystalline and amorphous materials by looking at one or more selected atoms. In present paper targets the ¹³C nuclide, and thus the major component of marble, calcium carbonate. Whatever their geological origin, marbles ¹³C‐NMR spectra present only one resonance corresponding to the carboxyl function whose intensity and line width vary from one marble to another. If the variation of the NMR signal intensity observed is the result of great T1 variations (from 220 to 5300 s) and is linked to iron content, the line width reflects defects in the calcite crystal in which calcium has been replaced by another element such as magnesium, aluminium or strontium. The specific profile of the NMR signal has been used successfully to help determine the origin of some archaeological items.     

The use of Forestry Commission censuses for the study of woodland change

The value of the first two completed Forestry Commission censuses, of 1924 and 1947/9, for the study of woodland change is assessed, and the contribution they might make to the investigation of past planting trends, the history of individual woods and post-war changes in woodland type and species is discussed. The original returns for the 1947/9 census have recently been released under the “thirty years rule” and problems involved in using this source together with possible avenues for further research are outlined.     

以党员先进性教育活动为契机积极探索流动党员教育管理的新机制

流动党员的教育和管理问题是新形势下党建工作面临的一个突出课题。如何针对流动党员形成的特点和规律,积极探索加强流动党员教育和管理工作的新机制,不仅是各级党组织肩负的重要责任,也是加强党的执政能力建设和先进性建设、巩固党的执政基础以及加强党的基层组织建设的迫切要求。     

Water power and the plan of St Gall

An analysis of the scale used by the designer of the Plan of St Gall allows for no other conclusion than that the mill and mortars shown on this Plan were water driven. Because of the paradigmatic nature of the Plan this means that hydraulically operated mills and mortars were by the makers of the Plan considered to be standard equipment of a Carolingian monastery — a conclusion supported by a wealth of other documentary source material available for this period.The Romans knew the water mill, but made little use of it. Its general adoption and diffusion in Merovingian and Carolingian Europe is in this study attributed to the rise and spread of Benedictine monasticism. It received its primary impetus from the need to provide milled and crushed grain in bulk for communities of considerable size, including a leisure class of men who had to be freed from the normal chores of toiling for life so that their energies could be directed to their primary task: the Work of God (Opus Dei). Water-powered trip hammers were in use in China before the birth of Christ. Their portrayal on the Plan of St Gall suggests that they were introduced in western Europe, not by Marco Polo, as some propose, but in the age of folk migrations or the early Carolingian Period.