Maize Agriculture Evolution in the Eastern Woodlands of North America: A Darwinian Perspective

David Rindos' coevolution theory remains the most comprehensive application of Darwinian theory to issues of prehistoric agriculture evolution. While his theory has drawn attention, there has been a lack of subsequent development of the application of Darwinian theory to prehistoric agricultural evolution. Combining Sewall Wright's shifting balance theory of evolution with aspects of Rindos' coevolution theory provides important new insights into the processes of crop transmission between regions. Using these theories, a model is developed for the adoption and subsequent evolution of maize agriculture in the Eastern Woodlands of North America.     

A Little Knowledge Is a Dangerous Thing: What We Know about the Role of the Media in State Politics

Abstract

This article explores the intellectual itinerary of the contemporary French political philosopher Pierre Manent. In particular, it highlights his efforts to do justice to the three great “poles” of human existence: philosophy, politics, and religion. Manent is shown to be a philosophically minded Christian, one who thinks politically and who rejects the temptation to “despise the temporal order.” Manent's reservations about the European project in its present form are shown to be rooted in a understanding of politics that emphasizes the need to weave together “communion” and “consent” if Europeans are to avoid administrative despotism and those postpolitical fantasies that prevent them from thinking and acting politically. The article ends with a reflection on Manent's impressive history of “political forms” in the Western world.     

Resource Intensification and Resource Depression in the Pacific Northwest of North America: A Zooarchaeological Review

In the Pacific Northwest of North America, researchers routinely suggest changes in human use of animals explain hunter-gatherer organizational changes and development of cultural complexity. For example, most models developed to explain developing cultural complexity invoke salmon in some fashion. Yet until recently, fish remains were not carefully studied and more generally, zooarchaeological evidence has not been systematically used to test models of culture change. This study reviews the 10,000-year-old faunal record in the Pacific Northwest to test predictions drawn from models of resource intensification, resource depression and hunter-gatherer organizational strategies. The records from two subareas, the South-Central Northwest Coast (Puget Sound/Gulf of Georgia) and the Northern Columbia Plateau, are examined in detail, representing 63 archaeological sites. While minor changes in animal use are evident, the overall record is characterized by stability rather than change.     

The Upper Paleolithic in Mediterranean Spain: A Review of Current Evidence

In spite of an active and sophisticated archaeological research program, the Paleolithic of the Iberian peninsula remains comparatively little known to English-speaking prehistorians, with the exception of Cantabrian Spain. The rich data set compiled by Spanish prehistorians and their colleagues over the past several decades stands to make a valuable and unique contribution to our understanding of the Pleistocene prehistory of Europe. We present a detailed overview of Upper Paleolithic chronology, sites, and assemblages for Mediterranean Spain, an area of over 1,600,000 km ² that extends from the French border to the Straits of Gibraltar. To interpret these data, we employ a regional perspective that emphasizes studies of paleoeconomy (especially zooarchaeology) and settlement. The Middle–Upper Paleolithic transition and Upper Paleolithic art also receive detailed treatment, and the Upper Paleolithic of Mediterranean Spain is discussed in the broader context of the late Upper Pleistocene of western Europe and the Mediterranean Basin.     

Determining the Provenance of native copper artifacts from Northeastern North America: evidence from instrumental neutron activation analysis

The emergence of archaeological interest in native copper in the mid-1800s developed in concert with explanations that privileged the Lake Superior area over other potential sources of copper. Most scholars have thus assumed that when copper artifacts first appeared in Northeastern North America, they arrived as finished implements or were locally made from Lake Superior raw materials. Procurement models that point to Lake Superior as the sole source of native copper have been widely accepted in the absence of systematic large-scale testing. This article evaluates the dominant model for native copper procurement and presents trace element data derived from instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) to determine whether hunter-gatherers in the Northeast utilized one dominant source of copper or in fact exploited a number of geological deposits. I specifically report on the chemical characterization of copper from 13 discrete geological deposits and 18 archaeological sites dating to the Late Archaic (ca. 5000–3000 B.P.) and Early Woodland (ca. 3000–2000 B.P.) periods to suggest that the dominant model for native copper procurement is oversimplified.     

Review Article: Metanarratives in Global Histories of Material Progress

WILLIAM R. THOMPSON. The Emergence of the Global Political Economy. London and New York: Routledge, 2000. Pp. xi, 252. $25.99 (US), paper; DEREK H. ALDCROFT and ANTHONY SUTCLIFFE, eds. Europe in the International Economy, 1500–2000. Cheltenham and Northampton, Mass.: Edward Elgar Publishing, 1999. Pp. xi, 289. $90.00 (US); KENNETH POMERANZ. The Great Divergence: Europe, China, and the Making of the Modern World Economy. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000. Pp. x, 382. $39.95 (US).     

Under New Management: What the Arab Spring Tells Us About Leadership Needs in the Middle East and North Africa

Leadership analysis examines how political heads and managers of public sector organizations can employ styles that will dovetail with the aspirations and energy of their country's inhabitants. Uncovering leadership models capable of channeling growth and productivity in this manner within Arab Middle East and North Africa (MENA) settings is essential to the stability of the region. Turbulent change in a globalizing environment continues to deepen this realization. And the ongoing effects of the Arab Spring highlight the importance of such an undertaking. Clearing a path toward establishing the necessary cultural congruence among administrative processes, tools, solutions, and people is a prerequisite to success that rests on identifying indigenously acceptable approaches to change. Engaging authentic leadership to guide successful achievement of new public management and new public governance goals offers one way to both envision and construct ongoing balance in the future.     

"We Know What the Problem Is": Using Oral History to Develop a Collaborative Analysis of Homelessness from the Bottom Up

Using audio, video, and radio interviews, the Cleveland HomelessOral History Project (CHOHP) has sought to foster the developmentof a collaborative analysis of homelessness from the bottomup. Designed to overcome problems with traditional academicresearch on homelessness, CHOHP explicitly seeks to share researchwith those living on the streets and in the shelters in Cleveland,Ohio and involve homeless people in the process of analysis.Rather than focusing on the personal pathologies of the homeless,the analysis that emerges from CHOHP suggests that trends indowntown and neighborhood real estate development, the criminalizationof the poor, the growth of the temporary labor industry, andthe retrenchment of the welfare system have led to the emergenceof powerful interests invested in perpetuating homelessness. Beyond analyzing these trends, CHOHP's formal research settinghas emboldened homeless people to act and become agents forsocial change.     

A Comparative Analysis of Farmland Preservation Programmes in North America

During the last two decades, in Canada and the United States, provincial and state governments have responded to the issue of farmland preservation with a variety of measures. These are examined within the context of political and social acceptability, cost of implementation, and impact. A typology of generic farmland protection strategies is developed to classify the state and provincial responses, with consideration given to the relative effectiveness of each. Of the four distinct policy approaches that emerge, the comprehensive-mandatory programmes are considered to promise the greatest success.
Au cows des deux dernières décennies, au Canada et dans les États-Unis, les gouvernements des provinces et des états ont adopté des politiques tres variées afin de preserver le territoire agricole. Ces politiques sont analysees dans le lut de determiner si leur mise en oeuvre est acceptable au point de vue politique et social et d'Cvaluer leur coût aussi que leur efficacité. Une typologie des strategies de conservation bade sur leurs caracteristiques génériques sert à classifier les diverses politiques, notamment eu égard à leur efficacité relative. Des quatre approches de politique qui ressortent de cette étude, celle basée sur des programmes obligatoires et globaux semble la plus prometteuse.     

The Almshouse in Dutch and English Colonial North America and its Precedent in the Old World: Historical and Archaeological Evidence

To establish historical and archaeological contexts for the case studies presented in this volume, this paper presents a review of the literature on the history and archaeology of almshouses. Because both English and Dutch colonial almshouses were based on European precedents, this paper examines historical research and archaeological work conducted in The Netherlands and England, as well as their North American colonies.