Behavioral Ecology and Archaeology

Behavioral ecology is the study of adaptive behavior in relation to social and environmental circumstances. Analysts working from this perspective hold that the reproductive strategies and decision-making capacities of all living organisms—including humans—are shaped by natural selection. Archaeologists have been using this proposition in the study of past human behavior for more than 30 years. Significant insights on variation in prehistoric human subsistence, life history, social organization, and their respective fossil and archaeological consequences have been among the more important results.     

文化景观的真实性与完整性

真实性与完整性是提名遗产地能否列入《世界遗产名录》的重要条件,文化景观遗产作为"自然与人的共同作品",其真实性完整性呈现出与其它遗产不同的特点。研究相关国际论著成果及国际古迹遗址理事会对文化景观遗产的评估报告,分析《世界遗产名录》中各类文化景观特征各异的真实性与完整性,对文化景观保护具有一定的参考意义。     

Landscapes of Time: Building Long-Term Perspectives in Animal Behavior*

In the 1960s, scientists fascinated by the behavior of free-living animals founded research projects that expanded into multi-generation investigations. This paper charts the history of three scientists’ projects to uncover the varied reasons for investing in a “long-term” perspective when studying animal behavior: Kenneth Armitage's study of marmots in the Rocky Mountains, Jeanne Altmann's analysis of baboons in Kenya, and Timothy Hugh Clutton-Brock's studies (among others) of red deer on the island of Rhum and meerkats in the Kalahari. The desire to study the behavior of the same group of animals over extended periods of time, I argue, came from different methodological traditions – population biology, primatology, and sociobiology – even as each saw themselves as contributing to the legacy of ethology. As scientists embraced and combined these approaches, a small number of long-running behavioral ecology projects like these grew from short pilot projects into decades-long centers of intellectual gravity within behavioral ecology as a discipline. By attending to time as well as place, we can see how this long-term perspective was crucial to their success; they measured evolutionary changes over generations of animals and their data provided insights into how the animals they studied were adapting (or not) to changing local and global environmental factors.     

Commentary Animal Domestication: Toward a Definition

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was a pioneering French aviator who helped to open airmail routes in North Africa and South America during the interwar years of the early twentieth century. He was also a celebrated author who described his piloting experiences and the relations between aviation, society and human development in several popular books. Saint-Exupéry's writings contain vivid representations of landscapes, places and people from the novel perspective of the airborne observer. Based on analysis of the revised editions of most of the English-language translations of Saint-Exupéry's published works, this article reveals that his writings contain a distinctive ‘geography from above’ in which landscapes and places are culturally constructed and myths about various ‘others’ are reproduced. Such a view was important: it allowed powerful visualisations to be created and communicated, and its expressions accompanied and legitimated the imperial expropriation of land.     

Claiming Space: Aboriginal Students within School Landscapes

There is an emerging body of theoretical, historical and design research that examines the ways in which race and cultural identity are understood to be produced and represented in the landscape. Yet, there remains a dearth of research examining both the historic and contemporary effects of race upon the development of school geographies. This paper has two broad purposes. It highlights the experiential aspects of racialized geographies within schools and, at the same time, it grapples with the processes that maintain or challenge the spatial conditions for the construction of whiteness. Drawing upon in-depth case study research this paper highlights the experiences of Aboriginal students and staff at four different schools, with a particular focus on cross-cultural schools, in Manitoba, Canada.

What is needed is a concept of landscape that helps point the way to those interventions that can bring about much greater social justice. And what landscape study needs even more is a concept of landscape that will assist the development of the very idea of social justice. (Henderson, 2003, p. 196)     

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.     

Holocaust Archaeology: Archaeological Approaches to Landscapes of Nazi Genocide and Persecution

Abstract

Debate concerning the events of the Holocaust is well embedded in the historical discourse and, thus, clearly defined narratives of this period exist. However, in most European countries the Holocaust has only recently begun to be considered in terms of its surviving archaeological remains and landscapes, and the majority of known sites are still ill-defined and only partially understood from both spatial structural points of view. Additionally, thousands of sites across Europe remain unmarked, whilst the locations of others have been forgotten altogether. Such a situation has arisen as a result of a number of political, social, ethical, and religious factors which, coupled with the scale of the crimes, has often inhibited systematic search. This paper details the subsequent development and application of a non-invasive archaeological methodology aimed at rectifying this situation and presents a case for the establishment of Holocaust archaeology as a sub-discipline of conflict studies. In particular, the importance of moving away from the notion that the presence of historical sources precludes the need for the collection of physical evidence is stressed, and the humanitarian, scientific, academic, and commemorative value of exploring this period is considered.     

安顺城市文化景观溯源及文化特色探析

安顺拥有丰富的城市文化景观,这些文化景观是安顺城市历史文化的载体,是安顺历史文脉的延续。本文对《贵州通志》、《安顺府志》、《续修安顺府志》三本志书所载"安顺八景"进行溯源,认为安顺城市文化景观具有历史的传承性和时代的更新性,这是一个城市文化进行延续和发展的内在力量。在此基础上,探讨了安顺城市文化的地域特色,希冀安顺在保护城市文化特色的同时,能在城市新区的建设中,延续安顺城市文脉和地域特色。     

Neoliberalism and the Aestheticization of New Middle‐Class Landscapes

Abstract: If according to Terry Eagleton (The Ideology of the Aesthetic 1990:28), the aesthetic is from the start “a contradictory, double‐edged concept”, how are seemingly innocent acts of viewing and consuming aesthetically pleasing landscapes implicated in the neoliberal politics of urban restructuring? Using contemporary Shanghai as a case study, this paper critically examines the role of the aesthetic in the politics of exclusion and urban segregation in post‐Socialist Shanghai where the restructuring and commodification of erstwhile public welfare housing have led to the rapid development of private “middle‐class” gated enclaves. A central objective of this paper is to excavate the underlying cultural politics of neoliberalism and demonstrate how the aestheticization of urban spaces in Shanghai has become increasingly intertwined with and accentuated by neoliberal ideologies and exclusionary practices in the city. Imbricated in the pristine neighborhoods of Shanghai's gated communities are the fault lines of social division and class distinction that are rapidly transforming urban China.     

Envisioning Future Landscapes in the Environmentally Sensitive Areas of Scotland

Environmentally Sensitive Areas (ESAs) designated under EC Structure Regulation 797/85 now cover 1.4 million ha of the Scottish countryside and are likely to make a substantial contribution to the regulation of landscape change. Visual changes to landscapes with (policy on) and without (policy off) the ESA programme in two Scottish ESA areas, Breadalbane and the Machair, are predicted through impact-assessment procedures and computer manipulation of photographic images. The methodological requirements for such predictions are outlined and substantial differences in landscape characteristics under policy on/off scenarios are revealed. Such approaches to landscape change are an essential foundation for the development of environmental cost-benefit analyses and will contribute to public consultation processes.     

Wardens of Civilisation: The Political Ecology of Australian Far-Right Civilisationism

The notion of a superior “civilisation” has been a hallmark of the politics of Western institutions and fringe white supremacists alike. Known ideologically as “civilisationism”, it has occupied a prominent position in the ideology of the Australian far-right. Paying tribute to their settler-colonial origins, the far-right has consistently promoted “white civilisation”, even inspiring terrorist attacks. Despite this propensity for violence, far-right civilisationism remains largely unexplored. Through investigating a dataset of Australian far-right content, this paper reveals civilisationism as a significant part of their ideology, an ideology which relies on the idealisation of European technologies and environments to render Indigenous land and people uncivilised. A critical narrative analysis of the data illustrates the ways that these ecological factors are drawn into narrative to articulate Australian far-right civilisationism, an ideology inseparable from the political ecology of European history and colonialism, that today represents a particularly virulent version of its legacy.     

Long-Term Socioecology and Contingent Landscapes

Long-term social and natural processes reciprocally interact in spatially and temporally dynamic socioecosystems. We describe an integrated program of patch-based survey and subsurface testing aimed at studying long-term socioecology, focusing especially on the transition from foraging to farming in Mediterranean Spain. Measures of landuse ubiquity, intensity, dispersion, and persistence trace late-Pleistocene through mid-Holocene socioecological trajectories in four upland valleys. Although farming replaced foraging in all four valleys, the timing and nature of this transition varied because of cumulative interactions between social and natural processes. These processes continue to structure modern landscapes and landuse in these valleys.     

动物驯化及其饲养管理的起源:人类和生物圈发展史上的重大变革

探讨家养动物的起源问题始终是国际动物考古学界关注的研究热点之一。本文的作者法国国家自然历史博物馆的吉恩-丹尼斯·瓦因(Jean-Denis Vigne)博士是国际知名的动物考古学家。他在这篇文章中,以时间早晚为序列,在全球范围内梳理了新石器时代动物驯化的发展脉络,并从中总结出一些早期动物驯化的主要趋势,提出新石器时代化、尤其是动植物的驯化栽培,是人类及生物圈发展历史轨迹中的一个关键性转折。与此同时,鉴于最早发现的驯化动物几乎均来自于近东地区,作者还特别强调了近东地区在研究动物驯化起源这一问题上的突出地位。另外,作者在文章的最后还专门强调了人类精神性以及象征性想法在动物驯化领域的重要性,这也是值得我们注意的。反观国内的相关研究,或许由于我国的考古学乃植根于历史学而非人类学这一特定原因,我们更多的只是试图从地层堆积、出土背景等考古学的角度以及骨骼形态、测量数据等动物考古学的视角来追溯家养动物的起源,而鲜有以人类学为切入点进行阐述的尝试。然而,无论是动物驯化或是植物栽培,既然是人类行为就离不开人类意识的支配和控制。因此,吉恩-丹尼斯·瓦因博士在这篇文章中提出的观点,尤其是研究思路,也就非常值得我们在今后的研究中思考...     

Historicizing Food Production in Polynesia: A Case Study of 2700 years of Land Use on Ofu Island,American Samoa

Strategies and techniques of food production change throughout the world reflecting the influence of a range of social and ecological factors. Often excluded in discussions of changing cultivation strategies, however, are the structuring effects of history. Within this paper, an examination of how history structured changing food production over the last 2700 years is presented using a case study of the island of Ofu in the archipelago of Samoa. The environment of Ofu has been altered significantly since human colonization, and many of these changes were caused or modulated by cultivation strategies. These cultural landscapes were inherited by subsequent generations of producers, impacting future productive strategies. Far from being simple artifacts of the past, these modified landscapes created by past producers continue to be inherited and cultivated by modern groups.     

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.     

Therapeutic landscapes and non-human animals: the roles and contested positions of animals within care farming assemblages

The concept of therapeutic landscapes has been used as a way to critically understand how health and well-being are related to place. However, traditional discourses on therapeutic landscapes have been constructed from an anthropocentric perspective, completely ignoring and silencing the agency and experiences of non-humans. Building on the idea of therapeutic spaces as assemblages, I highlight the heterogeneity of elements that come together to produce therapeutic space. Mobilizing empirical research undertaken in spaces involved in the practice of ‘care farming’, I demonstrate how non-human presence actively creates and facilitates a therapeutic engagement with place. However, with this recognition of the non-human in therapeutic spaces, there is a need to discuss animals’ contested positions, and question the ways in which being part of these assemblages impacts animals; for whom are these landscapes therapeutic? Thus, this article advocates a critical understanding of the role of non-human animals as both co-constituents and co-participants of therapeutic spaces, moving from framing therapeutic spaces – and the animals within them – purely in relation to human needs and desires.     

文化生态保护区建设的时间性和空间性研究

文化生态保护区建设是基于非物质文化遗产整体性特征,借鉴吸收西方文化生态学的理论,根据中国具体国情而实施的一项重要文化工程。对文化生态保护区建设的时间性和空间性予以综合探讨,既关乎学理,也是一个重要的现实实践问题。从时间性上来说,应尊重区域历史文化发展脉络、贴近民众当下生活,在当代生活时间中维护传统的连续性;从空间性上而言,应基于文化空间的完整性、行政管理的有效性而划定合理边界,并鼓励在维护文化特色的同时促进交流互鉴。文化生态保护的核心是人,文化生态保护区通过建设历史文化底蕴深厚、特色鲜明的自然人文空间,实现人与自然、人与社会、人与历史、人与自身关系的构建。     

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.     

In the Nature of the Non‐City: Expanded Infrastructural Networks and the Political Ecology of Planetary Urbanisation

This paper proposes extending Urban Political Ecology's (UPE) ideas about the urbanisation of nature in order to include the geographical imprints of expanding, global metabolic flows of matter, energy and capital. It does so through the analysis of Huasco, a small agricultural village in northern Chile that has been overburdened with massive energy undertakings aimed at powering the operations of mines that supply raw materials to international markets. Like the sewage and technological networks that feed the life of cities, the paper argues that Huasco—as a metabolic vehicle of planetary urbanisation—has also been hidden from view, and thus the fetishisation of urban infrastructural networks initially theorised by UPE, has been ratcheted‐up to the global level by the mediating powers of neoliberalising capitalism. Just as the socio‐material arrangements that facilitate the smooth functioning of the modern city and household are riddled with glitches and exclusions, the paper suggests that globally up‐scaled infrastructures reveal even larger contradictions that put into jeopardy the very premises upon which the ongoing commodification of nature is grounded.