Skeletal markers of occupational stress in the Fur Trade: A case study from a Hudson's Bay Company Fur Trade post

The Seafort Burial Site (FcPr100) is a Fur Trade Period cemetery located near the town of Rocky Mountain House, Alberta. The results of recent analysis of skeletons recovered during salvage excavations between 1969 and 1971 suggest that three males in this sample were voyageurs in the employ of the Hudson's Bay Company. Vertebral osteophytosis and osteoarthritis, Schmorl's nodes, muscle origin robusticity and new bone formation at entheses and syndesmoses, and osteoarthritis at the elbow and shoulder joints provide evidence for carrying, lifting, and paddling or rowing. The presence of accessory sacral facets also may be stress-related. In addition, the development of accessory articular facets on the metatarsals and proximal pedal phalanges may indicate activity-induced stress from hyperdorsiflexion of the toes in habitual kneeling, such as when river canoeing.     

State,Parliament and Empire in the Mid 18th Century: Hudson's Bay and the Parliamentary Enquiry of 1749

In 1749, the house of commons appointed a committee of enquiry into the lands and trade of Hudson's Bay. This was the climax to nearly 20 years' work by the Ulsterman, Arthur Dobbs, which focused first on renewed search for a northwest passage and later widened to attempt to expand trade and settlement by challenging the monopoly of the Hudson's Bay Company. Dobbs's Irish patriotism, linked by support for union with Britain with his remarkably expansive vision of British empire, became concentrated on this campaign with a zeal and tenacity which overrode contrary evidence based on experience. Propaganda pamphlets, mobilisation of compatriots, merchant and political contacts, briefs for MPs, marshalling of evidence and witnesses for parliamentary committees, 30 petitions from a variety of places, organised by Liverpool and Bristol merchants who took the lead in the final campaign: all were used to attempt to influence parliament. This was an impressive mid-century effort to promote British commerce and manufactures, actively supported by the parliamentary opposition which was reviving under Leicester House leadership. Yet, while this campaign could shape the report of the committee of enquiry, the House itself was not so easily moved, especially when public expenditure was likely to be involved. A motion arising from the report was decisively defeated. The impressive campaign came to nought. While it indeed reveals powerful visions of commercial and imperial expansion in the mid 18th century, the outcome suggests that realism and scepticism prevailed at the heart of the state.     

The Nineteenth-Century Fisheries of the Hudson's Bay Company Trading Posts on Lake Superior: a Biogeographical Study

Trading post personnel maintained records of natural and cultural phenomena, including data on fish and fishing. The Hudson's Bay Company posts on the north shore of Lake Superior developed a diverse fishery based on a rather complex association of species and stocks, especially lake trout, whitefish, and herring. In part learning from the Indians, the fishermen gained a fairly sophisticated understanding of the seasonal and spatial occurrences of fish aggregations. These are here summarized in text and table form and provide baseline data for fisheries which since the 1800s have been degraded and changed.
Les employés des comptoirs consignaient régulièrement les divers phénomènes culturels et naturels, y compris ceux qui relevaient des poissons et de la pêche. Les comptoirs de la Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson au littoral nord du lac Supérieur ont développé une industrie de la pêche diversifiée basée sur des rapports assez complexes entre les espèces et les stocks de poissons, surtout de touladi, de grand corégone, et de cisco de lac. Tirant leurs connaissances en partie des Indiens, les pêcheurs ont réussi à bien comprendre les détails des occurences spatiales et saisonnières des aggrégations de poissons. Les données de leurs observations se présentent dans ce travail sous forme de textes et de tableaux, et fournissent les renseignements de base pour les pêcheries qui, depuis le 19^e siècle, subissent des transformations et tiennent aujourd'hui une place moins importante dans l'industrie de la pêche.     

Trance and society

Erika Bourguignon, ed. Religion, Altered States of Consciousness, and Social Change. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1973. x+389 pp. Tables, illustrations, references, appendix, notes, and index. $12.50.     

Irrigation and society

Wittfogel's hydraulic theory of the origin of the state has provided the subject of irrigation and society with a privileged place in archaeology; contemporary literature concerning the social consequences of irrigation development has been neglected by archaeologists. The literature suggests that irrigation technology has as much to do with bureaucratic power as with water. Bureaucratic managementand mismanagement of irrigation technology mediate the outcome of such development projects on the affected populations. This observation challenges theories that posit a linear relationship between population growth and technology. Archaeologists would benefit from applying the insights from the development literature to archaeological analyses of irrigation.     

Knowledge and society

Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann: The Social Construction of Reality, Allan Lane, The Penguin Press, London, 1967, 249 pp. S8.50. Also (1967) as Anchor Paperback $1.25.     

近代西北皮毛产地及流通市场研究

甘肃、宁夏、青海、新疆、绥远、察哈尔以及陕西的北部位于我国农牧分界线以北地区,是我国主要的皮毛产地,近代中国70%以上的皮毛产于这一地区。近代西北皮毛市场兴起是以天津开埠为起点。天津开埠后逐渐成为中国北方最大的港口和出口市场,其经济腹地不断由华北向西北延伸,带动了近代西北皮毛市场的兴起。近代中外贸易的主要特点是西方列强利用不平等条约对中国原料的掠夺。因此,在西北皮毛市场兴起的过程中,外商、洋行、买办起了先导作用。在近代西北皮毛的市场链中,以产地市场为基础,以中转市场为枢纽,以出口市场为尾闾,形成了比较完整的市场体系。皮毛市场的勃兴,对西北区域市场与国际市场的联系产生了至关重要的作用,增加了西北地区经济发展的现代化因素。     

近代西北皮毛贸易与社会变迁

自清代晚期以来,随着中西贸易的不断深化和扩大,皮毛贸易逐渐成了整个西北商业、金融运行的"发动机",这个"发动机"不仅有力地推动了西北城镇布局的演变,而且还有力地改变了西北牧民的消费结构。前者主要表现在西北城镇布局从以河西走廊为中心逐渐转变为以沿黄河为中心的格局,也就是说,西北城镇布局由历来以东西为主转变为以南北为主的格局;后者主要表现在牧民购买粮、布等生活用品的数量和品种的急剧增加,从而使其衣食结构等方面发生了重大变化。不仅如此,皮毛贸易还引起了西北牧民的思想意识和生产结构等诸方面的变化,这些也是值得关注和研讨的问题。     

Blaming the Medici: Footnotes, falsification, and the fate of the ‘English Model’ in eighteenth-century Italy

Franco Venturi famously emphasised the importance of the ‘English Model’ for Italian reformist culture in his Settecento riformatore. This essay contributes to the history of the development and evolution of the ‘English Model’ beginning with its influential appearance in Antonio Genovesi's 1757–1758 translation of John Cary's 1695 Essay on the State of England. The ‘English Model’ was not a stable concept and, in fact, one tradition inverted the model's meaning, rejecting the need for protectionism and instead embracing a providential faith in laissez-faire. This tradition began with an important, but falsified footnote in Carlo Denina's 1769–1770 Rivoluzioni d’Italia. In this note and the tradition that adopted it, Lorenzo de’ Medici's imagined English wool factories became the locus of this inversion, and, through a reading of Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, blaming the Medici as agents of Italy's aberrant historical development became an alternative to blaming English economic imperialism in late eighteenth-century Italy. The narrative of Medici involvement in the decline of Italy was finally realigned with Genovesi's original intention under the auspice of Pope Pius VI in 1794.     

试论毛皮贸易对北美印第安人的生态影响

毛皮边疆是北美西部开发中最具有传奇性的一种边疆,它不仅涉及范围广,持续时间长,而且创造了白人与印第安人交往的新形式,同时还给北美印第安人带来了深刻的影响。本文主要从环境史角度探讨了毛皮边疆导致的印第安人生存环境的恶化和生态伦理的堕落,驳斥了所谓印第安人从毛皮贸易中受益的谎言。