Advances in Morphometrics in Archaeobotany

ABSTRACT

Morphometric analysis offers an alternative or augmentation to traditional archaeobotanical methods to address differences within and between plant species and their remains, refining and enhancing taxonomic resolution. Morphometrics, the measurement of size and shape, and the multivariate statistical analysis of generated quantitative variables, have long played a major role in biological research, including plant taxonomy and systematics, although its application in archaeobotany is relatively recent. Over the last few decades, there has been an increasing interest in the use of morphometrics for analysing a varied range of archaeological plant materials (mainly seeds, pollen, phytoliths, and starch grains). In particular, morphometrics have contributed to the study of the domestication and spread of many cereals world-wide, as well as that of other taxa including legumes, underground storage organs (USO), and fruits (such as olives, grapes, and dates). This paper reviews current methodologies, recent applications, and advances in the use of morphometrics in archaeobotanical research, discusses its role in exploring major research questions, and suggests possible future directions for its use.     

America in Speech and in Deed

The author's primary aim in what follows is to fully articulate Chantal Delsol's critique of late modern universalism as an attempt to depoliticize the individual for the sake of replacing politics with morality. The result of this depoliticization is a quasi-pantheistic cosmopolitanism that not only effectively denies the significance of individuality, despite rhetorically lionizing it, but also undercuts the freedom of individual conscience that makes moral choice possible. Genuine political prudence and moral judgment are subsequently replaced by the rigid exactitude of a technocratic analysis that reintroduces the "clandestine ideology" it was, despite protestations to the contrary, intended to eliminate. The unhappy paradox produced by the attempt to replace the necessary limitations of political judgment with the universality of a priori moral decree is that a new set of culturally and historically idiosyncratic political attachments are surreptitiously introduced beyond the pale of reasonable debate and disagreement. Delsol's measured response is not a precipitous rejection of universalism as such but a rehabilitation of it that recaptures the Christian moral realism at its core.     

Geography in Higher Education in Australia

Within the last 30 years, geographical information systems (GIS) have been used increasingly in the training of geographers. On the basis of the philosophy of technology and instrumental genesis, we sketch how the use of instruments interacts with learning processes and outline how this can be studied. We empirically analyse students' learning processes and the influences of teaching practice in an introductory course in GIS. We show that students have different strategies for creating their personal instrument for spatial thinking and how teaching interacts with the students' learning processes. Finally, we discuss how GIS may gradually alter future professional development of geographers.     

以上海为例看晚清时期社会生活方式及观念的变迁

晚清时期,上海的商业化、城市化生活环境变化,引起了人们生活方式的变动,出现了如洋货流行、从商之风、尊卑失序、女子走上社会、追求享乐等新社会风尚,导致传统伦理衰坏,同时也孕育产生了近代市场意识、近代工商观念、社会平等观念、功利主义及肯定人欲、自由的近代伦理观念。反映出生活方式的变动是引起近代生活伦理观念变迁的中介和启动力量。     

20世纪90年代上海产业布局的发展变化

20世纪90年代,着眼于城市功能的重新定位,按照"三、二、一"产业发展新思路,上海的产业布局进行了重大的战略调整,逐步形成了中心城以三产为主、郊区以二产为主的大都市产业布局架构。在各类工业区建设的基础上,上海又突出发展形成了"东南西北"四大产业基地。由此,上海产业布局呈现出一个明显特征,就是第二产业立足于城市功能重塑、提高工业产业的竞争力,通过加强对重大产业项目的"政策聚焦",确立了空间发展的内环整合战略和"东西南北"发展战略,依托都市工业园区和城郊工业区,大大提高了产业聚集度。     

Changes in human bones boiled in seawater

The differences between boiled or unboiled bones are not often studied. However, they are crucial to understand postmortem rituals and to establish defleshing procedures and mortuary practices. In this work, human bones boiled in sea or fresh water are characterized. The bone composition, as well as the compounds present in the resulting materials, shows that salt alters the boiling process mechanism. Hence, from structural and morphological criteria, it is possible to distinguish if a bone has been boiled in salt or fresh water. In both sets of samples, the smoothness of the bone surface depends on boiling time, but only in bones boiled in seawater, filaments are observed apparently pouring out of the pores.Those differences which are mainly morphological (smoothness of the surface) are explained in terms of a collagen diffusional mechanism favored by sodium and chloride ions. For a boiling time of 6 h, the surface is covered by a thick layer or crusts of degraded collagen. Experiments with seawater may be used as model experiments to simulate taphonomical alterations in bones exposed to salt water.     

Women in parliaments in the Pacific region

The island states of the Pacific region are at the bottom of the international league table for the representation of women in parliament. Despite considerable efforts by international agencies and donor governments and by women of the region, progress on increasing representation is extraordinarily slow. Three major explanations for these low levels of representation can be identified. The most common explanation relates to cultural beliefs, while a second account locates the problem in women's socio-economic status. The third explanation argues that there are obstacles for women in the electoral and parliamentary institutions that warrant the introduction of legislated minimum representation of women. Each of these explanations contributes value to our understanding but each also has significant deficiencies, which are identified in the article.

就议会的妇女代表性而论,太平洋地区的岛屿国家可谓国际圆桌会议的垫底。尽管有国际机构和捐助国以及该地区女性的坚持不懈,提高妇女代表性的进展格外缓慢。对于这种低水平的代表性可以有三种解释。最常见的解释与文化观念有关,第二种强调妇女的社会经济地位。第三种解释认为,选举以及议会体制中存在一些障碍,使得妇女的代表性在立法上被最小化。三种解释都有助于我们对问题的理解,但它们又都存在着本文所指出的重要缺陷。     

杏开二月

已经是二月仲春了,大地柔软,天气慢慢热起来了。一场习习的春雨,浇得人心头酥酥的。我第一次注意到,家门前的杏树开了。枝干上,星星点点,挑着几朵白,轻盈得很,把薄薄的心打开,驻足美的枝头,观赏人间烟火。背后是灰灰的庭院,低矮的     

北极斯瓦尔巴群岛的旅游资源

北极斯瓦尔巴群岛地区是地球最北端的陆区,那里特有的景观,如午夜的太阳、极光、海湾、冰川、极地动物、苔原生态体系、人类探索北极的足迹等都是宝贵的极地旅游资源,有待于我们开发和利用。     

Geography's Place in Higher Education in Singapore

Despite efforts by the United Kingdom Government, the Teacher Training Agency and other organisations to address the problem of teacher shortages in geography within English schools, the subject is still failing to attract sufficient students into the profession. Whilst the impact of this has yet to be felt fully in higher education, it is only a matter of time before university geography departments may find it increasingly difficult to recruit quality students onto their undergraduate courses. By sampling three distinct populations, geography teachers, geography undergraduates and sixth formers [1] , this research presents evidence of the recruitment problem, seeks to understand its nature and suggests strategies for addressing the underlying issues.     

Recent Trends in Computer Applications in Archaeology

Publications of computer applications in archaeology are reviewed for the period between 1990 and 1996 inclusive. The influence of technological developments on research effort is noted, and particular areas of growth are described. One of the major trends during the review period has been the increase in use of geographical information systems (GIS), but these have still to fulfill their potential. The increased uses of computers for education, communication, and electronic publication are also regarded as important growth areas.     

The fourth molar in a mandible found in a Jomon skeleton in Japan

A fourth molar in a mandible occurs very rarely, even in clinical surveys involving a large number of modern people. Having encountered a case with the fourth mandibular molar in a prehistoric skull in Japan, we would like to report on the macroscopic morphology of the case using X-rays, and to discuss the case with reference to literature concerning supernumerary teeth in the molar region.     

Critical GIScience in Canada in the new millennium

Critical GIS (CGIS) is an approach to evaluating GIS technology that draws upon multiple intellectual tool kits—from geography, social theory and computing science. While its roots are in the battles between human geographers and GIScientists in the 1990s, CGIS has emerged as an independent, constructive approach to enhancing the power and appeal of GIS. CGIS is also beginning to gain acceptance as a legitimate component of the broad tent that is GIScience. This short article reviews the emergence of CGIS, discusses its influence on the discipline of GIScience and finally explores the state of CGIS in Canada.     

20世纪30年代美国的和平主义运动

20世纪30年代,在人们对第一次世界大战进行反省和日益恶化的国际形势的影响下,美国社会出现了一股与孤立主义既相联系又相区别的和平主义思潮。和平主义者主要由妇女、宗教界人士和在校大学生组成。他们反对战争和军备,主张以和平的手段和方式解决国际纠纷。在法西斯主义猖獗的时代背景下,和平主义者的理念及其实践显得与现实严重脱节,最后只能以失败而告终。     

Rethinking Whiteness and Masculinity in Geography: Drinking Alcohol in the Field in Vietnam

This paper evaluates the spatial politics of fieldwork in Vietnam in order to think through the connections between whiteness, masculinity, and geography. In drawing attention to how the consumption of alcohol underwrites daily activities in Vietnam, as well as fieldwork activities, I show that research ethics are underpinned by unique spatial contexts that do not conform to conventional accounts of masculinity and whiteness in the global North. I make three interrelated arguments. First, I argue that debates in geography about whiteness and masculinity must be understood alongside fieldwork experiences in the global South. Second, I invite geographers to think through how research ethics are shaped by spatially contingent productions of whiteness and masculinity. Lastly, I challenge geographers to keep pace with how disruptive categories like whiteness and masculinity are produced outside of the global North.     

Patterning in procurement of obsidian in Chaco Canyon and in Chaco-era communities in New Mexico as revealed by X-ray fluorescence

X-ray fluorescence analysis of obsidian artifacts from sites located in Chaco Canyon and from three Chaco-era communities in New Mexico permits determination of their geological origin. These source data are used to describe patterning in obsidian procurement in sites located in Chaco Canyon dating from A.D. 500–1150, and in a three non-Canyon communities occupied during the period of Chaco Canyon's regional prominence (ca. A.D. 875–1150). These data demonstrate that the most proximate sources generally dominate the sourced obsidian assemblages from sites of all periods, but also suggest differences in procurement patterning both over time and across space. Within Chaco Canyon, there is a notable shift from Mount Taylor obsidian to use of Jemez Mountains sources over time. These data also suggest that earlier analyses of obsidian from sites in Chaco Canyon misidentified some obsidian artifact sources; these new data indicate the central areas of disagreement and provide a revision of procurement patterning. In the Chaco-era communities located outside Chaco Canyon, procurement patterning diverges. The Blue J community shows an increase in use of the nearby Mount Taylor source over time. Two communities located toward the southern extent of the Chaco great house distribution reveal a markedly distinct procurement pattern, obtaining nearly all of their obsidian from southern sources largely unrepresented at Chaco Canyon. Combined, these data provide new insights into raw material procurement and artifact production at sites in Chaco Canyon, and in communities occupied during the Chaco Phenomenon, the period of the Canyon's greatest regional influence.