The restructuring of the Spanish salted fish market

This article discusses how cultural, technological and social factors contribute to the restructuring of the Spanish salted fish market and production systems. The analytical principles used are institutional, evolutionary socio-economic theories on spatial, technological and social change. A major focus of the analysis is the use of production chain theory to analyze the Spanish salted fish market. The main issue is whether Spain, as a traditional salted fish consumer market, is more influenced by technology and supplier strategies than by cultural aspects and consumer traditions. The strategies of Icelandic salted fish suppliers, better preservation systems and new salting methods seem to have influenced the restructuring of the Spanish salted fish market more than cultural factors. Nevertheless, without the Spanish tradition of salted fish, the new light salted fillets and desalted products most likely would not have been accepted by consumers. In addition, the Icelandic influence proves the strength of national Icelandic production systems.     

Pigs, presses and pastoralism: farming in the fifth to sixth centuries AD

The fifth to sixth centuries were a time of significant change in rural settlement, land use, production levels and productive technology in many regions. Archaeological and related discoveries suggest that in western Europe, specialized market- and state-oriented production gave way to mixed animal husbandry and diversified farming more suited to local terrains. This was accompanied by a widespread transformation of rural settlement. In contrast, the eastern Mediterranean experienced rural settlement expansion, intensification of land use, increased market-oriented agricultural production, and a significant change in oil and wine press technology. These changes seem to reflect the socio-political context in both east and west during this pivotal period.     

Large-scale 2nd to 3rd century AD bloomery iron smelting in Korea

Iron production in Korea has traditionally been seen in the shadow of developments in cast iron technology in China, with limited indication for a northern influence via Russia’s Maritime Province. The possibility of the existence of bloomery iron production in ancient Korea has been little explored, and relevant discussion is fraught with speculations based primarily on the early use of cast iron. The recent excavation of a site in South Korea recovered substantial amounts of slag providing direct evidence of bloomery smelting. The accelerator mass spectrometric dating of burnt wood from inside one of the slag pieces showed that the site was in use in the early 3rd century AD or earlier, which is in agreement with the assessment based on ceramic typology. The traits of a bloomery process evident in the slags’ microstructure, shape, composition and excavation context are discussed along with the implications for historical iron technology in Korea, where cast iron and the influence from China have been overly emphasised.     

Evidence concerning the roman military diet at Bearsden,Scotland, in the 2nd Century AD

Analyses of sterols and biological studies have shown that a Roman defensive ditch was also a cesspit. The plant debris includes wheat fragments dispersed from defecated bread or other farinaceous food. These techniques may reveal ancient diets in a detail previously impossible to achieve.     

Infectious diseases and eating habits at Herculaneum (1st century AD,southern Italy)

This paper shows that many food remains excavated from Herculaneum were microbiologically contaminated, and that the Romans probably had continuous exposure to gastrointestinal diseases. However, palaeopathological analysis of skeletal remains from Herculaneum shows a low prevalence of non‐specific bone inflammation. Pomegranates and figs, consumed by the population, were mainly dried and invariably contaminated by Streptomyces, a bacterium that produces natural tetracycline, an antibiotic. Histological analysis of the human remains demonstrates fluorescence typical of this substance. The tetracycline‐labelled human remains show that the Roman inhabitants of Herculaneum ate food contaminated by Streptomyces, and this may explain the rarity of inflammatory bone diseases at the site due to non‐specific infection in the living population. This interpretation fits with therapeutic indications suggested by Roman physicians that preserved fruits were used to cure some inflammatory diseases. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Dutch pantiles in the county of Norfolk: architecture and international trade in the 17th and 18th centuries

Abstract

A series of clay tobacco pipes made in the Virginia colony in the 17th century were adorned with rouletted stars. In considering the many possible readings of their iconography, this study explores the social use of the celestial landscape, arguing that stars and constellations represented familiar features in a landscape otherwise alien to Chesapeake immigrants. They were therefore among the points of convergence which served to provide a foundation for dialogue across ethnic boundaries. Algonquian, European, and West African star lore are considered to the extent that available evidence allows, in recognition that a diversity of authors contributed to the pipes' lavish embellishment.     

海贸与移民互动:17-18世纪闽南人移民海外原因分析--以闽南人移民台湾为例

17-18世纪是闽南人海外移民的高潮时期,也是台湾移民社会形成和发展时期.台湾移民以闽南人为主,可说是闽南社会在海峡对岸的延伸.推动闽南人移民海外的内因是明中叶以来的人口压力,而16世纪中叶欧人东来以后带动的商贸和东亚、东南亚沿海地区的开发使对中国商贩和劳力的需求大增,则是吸引闽南移民的拉力.在整个17-18世纪,始终存在着华人海上商贸和海外移民的互动.闽南人冒险、重商的人文精神,则是使这种推力与拉力作用得以实现的主观原因.17世纪20年代以来,由泉籍郑氏集团主导的海外华商网络和台湾开发则是台湾泉籍人多于漳籍人和泉籍人主导台湾商贸的主要原因,这与17-18世纪海外华商网络和华人社会以闽南人为主、闽南籍者又以泉府人居多是相一致的.     

Cremated Human Remains Deposited in Two Phases: Evidence from the Necropolis of the Tuileries Site (Lyon,France: 2nd Century AD)

A small 2nd century AD necropolis was discovered at site N°16–28 Tuileries Street, in the 9th district of Lyon. This funerary ensemble included two secondary funerary structures, one containing cremation residues and the other an ossuary. Together, the structures have spatial, stratigraphic and anthropological particularities, which can be used to establish the relative chronology of certain funerary gestures applied to a single individual. Here, we insist on the necessity of detailed anthropological analyses, which allowed us to reestimate the minimum number of individuals, reconsider the relationship between the two different structures and postulate a new interpretation of the funerary gestures. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Peasant Categories in the Tenth and eleventh centuries

Abstract

The need for the state to protect its fiscal revenues is presented in the tenth-century legislation as a significant factor underlying the efforts made by the imperial administration to check the growing power of its provincial magnates and to make it more difficult for them to extend their properties at the expense of weaker peasants. In practice the most effective way for the state to maintain its revenues was to ensure through the regular activities of its fiscal officials that peasants who owed tax-payments to the state were not brought under the control of powerful lay and ecclesiastical landowners.     

A survey of British metamorphic hone stones of the 9th to 15th centuries AD in the light of potassium-argon and natural remanent magnetization studies

Hone stone trade and use during the period of Scandinavian-English interaction (9th–15th centuries AD) was dominated by two metamorphic petrological types represented by the “Norwegian Ragstone” (NR) a quartz-mica schist, and the “Purple Phyllite” (PP) a quartz-mica phyllite, and finds are abundant throughout the Viking world. Petrology associates the NR type with the known quarries at Eidsborg, southern Norway, and this has been endorsed by isotopic evidence. The source of the PP type remains unknown, but has been postulated to be a second facies of Eidsberg material, or even a Variscan phyllite from Belgium. It was the purpose of this study to further refine the possible source area of the PP material. Age data now indicate a “Caledonian” source for the PP type. Within Europe the superposition of metamorphic belts has led to the occurrence of both schist and phyllitic metamorphic lithologies. Petrological criteria therefore rarely provide evidence of the source of such rocks. The zonation of Europe by metamorphic belts does, however, allow isotopic age studies to be used as an aid to provenancing. The PP hones exhibit a range of mineralogy which may indicate a variety of sources, although no archaeological sites capable of producing such a quantity of material have been identified within the Viking world. The evidence, however, indicates a source in the Norwegian Caledonides.     

管窥9—10世纪我国陶瓷贸易的域外中转港现象——以东南亚地区为焦点

9-10世纪时,我国海上对外贸易进入了第一个高峰时期,标志之一就是瓷器的大规模外销。其路线大致可分为两条:一条自东海、黄海至高丽、日本等国,另一条自南海至东南亚、印度及阿拉伯地区等处。关于后者,东南亚地区是一个重要的节点。当时在东南亚地区是否存在中国瓷器外销的中转港,学界众说纷纭。从爪哇海发现的黑石号、印坦和井里汶三条沉船出发,通过梳理相关文献及考古材料,可以认为9世纪前中期在东南亚可能并不存在中转港;9世纪末,在黄巢攻掠广州之后,中转港才得以逐渐形成,其地点很可能是文献记载的"箇罗国"。     

Graduated sovereignty and global governance gaps: Special economic zones and the illicit trade in tobacco products

Illicit trade in tobacco products has been a significant problem globally for many years. It allows cigarettes to be sold far below their legal price and thus contributes to higher consumption, morbidity and mortality, and deprives state treasuries of a substantial amount of revenue. This article identifies special economic zones (SEZs), particularly free trade zones, as a key conduit for this illicit trade. The development of SEZs as weak points in the global governance architecture is explained with reference to the concept of ‘graduated sovereignty’, whereby the uniform management of territory by modern states has given way to a more spatially selective form of territorial governance, in which some slices of territory are more fully integrated into the world economy than others via various forms of differential regulation. Attempts to comprehensively (re)regulate SEZs, in the face of growing evidence of the dysfunctionalities that they can engender, have so far been unsuccessful. It is concluded that the neo-liberal global economy has facilitated a regulatory ‘race to the bottom’, a problem that can only ultimately be overcome by international negotiation and agreement.     

Re-tribalization in the 21st century,part 1

This exploratory study presents ‘re-tribalization’ as a framework for comprehending contemporary global patterns and phenomena. It posits a link between the erosion of modernity's traits and a resurgence of tribal behaviour – the more elements that we associate with modernity diminish, the more we see the emergence of group formations akin to anthropological notions of tribes. This trend manifests not only in societies where tribal and lineage affiliations remain central to identity but also – perhaps more notably, considering modernity's promises – in developed nations, including global powerhouses like the USA, India and China. ‘Re-tribalization’ signifies a modern-day recourse to a so-called tribal past, fortifying intra-group cohesion and creating a distinction from other groups, thus delineating ‘us’ and ‘them’. This process highlights the drawing of boundaries between communities, positing that such delineations were more apparent in the past and need to be re-established to navigate today's challenges and crises. The study traces the historical lineage of re-tribalization appeals and their ties to nationalism, citing instances from Johann Gottfried Herder's works. This argument leverages the authors’ nearly two decades of ethnographic fieldwork, a collection of four studies and initial insights from their soon-to-be-published book.     

Demography and pronatalism in France in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries

The fear of population decline in France is deep-rooted and complex. With a renewed decline in fertility in the 1970s, fresh concern has shown itself in the multiplication of books and comments, fitting into a pronatalist tradition which can be traced back at least one hundred and fifty years. In reviewing these works, and other new works on the history of population ideas in France, this paper emphasizes both the uniqueness of the French demographic case and the continuity of reactions both official and private. It isolates key periods of concern in the years before the First World War, in the 1930s and the late 1970s. It also draws attention to the proliferation of propaganda, four examples of which are re-published here.