Clan Claims: Land,Law and Violence in the Papua New Guinea Eastern Highlands1

Land has become the source of new end more complex disputes in Papua New Guinea in recent years. Economic opportunities associated with government programs and multinational corporations have altered land values in rural districts. This paper examines how in the context of such shifting attitudes toward land, competing groups in an Eastern Highlands district use both law and violence in their confrontations. One component of the legal strategies pursued includes the elaboration of clan stories to legitimize claims before the courts. Yet, while rural elites and their families may desire the support of the law in their economic pursuits, the realities of intergroup violence set limits on the likely success of this approach.     

Sorcery and Warfare in the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea

Sorcery and warfare are closely interrelated in the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea. In contrast to other areas of the Highlands, sorcery in large parts of the Eastern Highlands is considered to be an exclusively male domain, and violent retribution for deaths attributed to sorcery is primarily directed against other communities. Thus, sorcery accusations have the tendency to escalate to large‐scale inter‐group warfare, often causing additional casualties. Sorcery beliefs have undergone changes during the colonial and postcolonial era, with new forms of sorcery proliferating, and the zones of safety from sorcery shrinking, due to demographic and economic changes. Sorcery accusations were triggers for the resumption of warfare during the late 1970s and 1980s, and they remain pertinent to outbreaks of hostilities today. In fact, the majority of armed conflicts between 1975 and 2006 among a sample of Fore, Auyana, and Tairora communities in the Okapa and Obura‐Wonenara districts of the Eastern Highlands Province are connected to sorcery beliefs and sorcery accusations. These sorcery accusations are the result of uneven economic development and failure to deliver basic social services. When violence is threatened, local leaders try to mediate the hostility, but the state seems unable to offer alternatives for the peaceful settlement of conflicts.     

畜牧业的突破与中古英国的粮食生产

从历史经验看,中世纪英国的畜牧业是制约农业发展的“瓶颈”,农业摆脱周期性的危机而步入持续进步的道路,离不开畜牧业突破的支持。但以往学术界对中世纪后期英国处于优势地位的畜牧经济尚缺乏历史的对待,对突破的过程及其意义的研究也似显不足。有鉴于此,本文拟探讨...     

The Suakin Dilemma: Conservation and Heritage Management in Eastern Sudan

Abstract

A four-step process for the stabilization of fragile, exposed historic adobe structures has been developed. The structures are first stabilized by consolidation with an alkoxysilane. Protection for the tops of walls is provided by capping with mud made with an acrylic polymer emulsion instead of water. A similar modified mud is then sprayed over the entire structure to provide a veneer that does not significantly change the appearance of the wall surface. Finally, when dry, this is covered with a polysiloxane water repellent. Small test sections of walls of the adobe ruins at Fort Selden, New Mexico, USA, were subjected to various treatment combinations. After two winters, it was found that the four-step procedure gave the best results.     

Food Markets in the Eastern Highlands, Papua New Guinea: Actors, Power and Rural Development Geography

Discussions of rural development in the highlands of Papua New Guinea have often centred on coffee, and been couched either in narrowly economic terms or in class analysis terms. Fresh food marketing has received less attention, although it is an important activity for many highland people. An approach which takes into account the subjectivity of actors, and the contests of power which permeate markets, is explored in this paper. The history and present forms of fresh food marketing in the Eastern Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea are then outlined. The author concludes by arguing for a geography of rural development, which is based on close attention to social interaction at the local level, coupled with an awareness of global structures provided by non-universalist political economy.     

古器物纹饰传拓中的“看”与“做”

在现代文物展览、文物类图书出版中,对古器物纹饰部分进行拓片制作日益受到重视。本文是作者在多年的文物传拓实践中,对如何用传拓的手段来表现器物纹饰美感的理论认识。本文的观点是:传拓古器物纹饰,必须要深入把握古器物的纹饰内容和雕(铸)造层次,并通过对墨色浓淡变化的自觉控制,才能达到“传神”地再现古器物纹饰神韵的目的。     

Osteometry as a Source of Refined Demographic Information: Sex-Ratios of Reindeer, Hunting Strategies, and Herd Control in the Late Glacial site of Stellmoor, Northern Germany

In archaeozoological investigations of sexually-dimorphic species such as Rangifer, Cervus, andBison , osteometry has a great—but as yet unexploited—potential as a source of refined demographic information. For this purpose, however, two important points must be taken into account. Firstly, the age-classes represented by different skeletal elements differ and thus sex-ratios may vary according to the anatomical element studied. Secondly, the fragments to be analysed should be chosen carefully in order to ensure that he age-class which they represent is known. A failure to do so may hinder the correct determination of sex ratios. This paper attempts to show, by means of an example, that, when these factors are considered, important demographic information and interesting insights about topics such as hunting strategies can be gained. The analysis of the reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) assemblage from Stellmoor, an open-air Late Glacial site in northern Germany, revealed that male and female individuals in the different cohorts were killed in the same proportions as they occur in a typical herd, thus pointing to a non-selective hunting strategy. The results also argue against the assertion that reindeer herds were controlled by people during this period.     

The Last Big Man: Development and Men's Discontents in the Papua New Guinea Highlands

Big Men achieve that status by making good things happen for others as well as for themselves. In the minds of many Papua New Guineans development promises a direct route to becoming Super Big Men and Women. Mostly, however, it produces inequality and conflict. This is striking in places peripheral to major developments and in situations where not everyone benefits (e.g. compensation to ‘local landowners' - narrowly defined by mining companies - and lucrative urban employment - enjoyed only by the few, mostly male elite). Uneven development pits men and women, parents and children, and whole communities against one another as those less fortunate fail to match the generosities or competition of more prosperous exchange partners. In this article, I look at development through the eyes of one self-proclaimed ‘last Big Man’. As a youth, Ruge participated in male initiation and worked for the colonial outsiders, hoping to manipulate both old and new systems. He married several wives in the tradition of past Gende leaders but chose one because she had been to school, knew the ways of Europeans and had a keen business sense. In spite of what looked like the right moves and a sincere concern for his followers, Ruge could not prevent his society from being ravaged by inequality or help a growing number of bachelors afford expensive brideprices as more and more village girls married wealthy strangers from other parts of Papua New Guinea. In the end, a clan brother killed Ruge in an argument over land, making Ruge a victim to capitalist development's indifference to local traditions of family, reputation, and leadership.     

The little ice age in the Scottish Highlands and Islands: Documenting its human impact

This paper examines the Little Ice Age in the Scottish Highlands and Islands and uses documentary evidence to show its impact on the farm economy. It has three sections. The first examines how Highland climate may have changed during the Little Ice Age, and notes that increased storminess was probably as much a factor as lower annual mean temperatures. The second takes the most severe phase of the Little Ice Age, the Maunder Minimum, 1645–1715, and uses rests or eases of rent to show how it stressed the farm economy. The third examines evidence for the abandonment of land during the Maunder Minimum. As well as arguing that we need to see abandonment in its social as well as physical setting, it highlights the role played by the temporary abandonment of land and suggests that such abandonment along the western seaboard probably indicates the impact of increased storminess.     

西周石玦的生产形态:关于原料、技术与生产组织的探讨——周原遗址齐家制玦作坊个案研究之二

长期以来,技术被看作与生产组织密切相关的一个重要因素.因此,技术的复杂程度常常作为判定生产组织和社会复杂化程度的重要依据①.     

Land Use Patterns in Central Asia. Step 1: The Musical Chairs Model

Herding and farming coexisted in Central Asia for several thousand years as main options of preindustrial economic production. The relationship between people practicing different variants of these modes of subsistence is known to have been dynamic. Among the many possible explanations, we explore this dynamic by modeling mechanisms that connect aggregate decisions to land use patterns. Within the framework of the SimulPast project, we show here the results from step 1 of our modeling program: the Musical Chairs Model. This abstract agent-based model describes a mechanism of competition for land use between farming and herding. The aim is the exploration of how mobility, intensity, and interdependence of activities can influence land use pattern. After performing a set of experiments within the framework of this model, we compare the implications of each condition for the corroboration of specific land use patterns. Some historical and archaeological implications are also discussed. We suggest that the overall extension of farming in oases can be explained by the competition for land use between farming and herding, assuming that it develops with little or no interference of climatic, geographical, and historical contingencies.     

Patterns in the Mess: The United States and Nicaragua

Review in this Article
Robert A. Pastor. Condemned to Repetition: The United States and Nicaragua . Princeton     

The Limits of Compulsion: Demographic Influences on Voter Turnout in Australian State Elections

It is often assumed that the problem of electoral participation in Australia has been solved with an entrenched regime of compulsion in enrolment and voting. In recent elections, however, one-fifth of eligible Australians failed to cast a valid vote. This study aims to identify those demographic groups which contribute to this substantial rate of abstention. The authors used Random Forests to model the effects of demographic factors on voter turnout in three Australian state general elections. Results suggest that resource barriers have been generally surmounted, but lower levels of population stability and interaction contribute to a decline in electoral participation. These findings have implications for electoral administration, urban form and compulsion itself.

人们经常说,澳大利益选举参与度的问题已经通过强制性投票解决了。不过在近年的选举中,有五分之一的适龄澳大利亚人没有进行有效投票。本文意在探讨哪些人群造成了如此大比例的弃权。作者使用“随机森林”分析了人口因素对三个州普选结果的影响。结果表明,资源障碍一般说是消除了,但较低的人口稳定与互动水平导致了人们对选举的消极态度。这个发现对于选举的管理、城市的形态以及强制本身都有着参考价值。     

墓祭抑或祠祭:元代两浙地区士人家族祭祖方式的转变

元代沿袭前代习俗,加之信仰政策相对放任,士人家族或在寺院、道观中祭祀先人.受社会风气影响,兼容儒家礼制与人情的墓祠祭祖形式也开始盛行,但祭祀对象也不限于男性先祖.受理学社会化、宗族观念演进的影响,部分士人家族在《朱子家礼》指导下,开始设立祠堂以祭祖.元代两浙地区士人家族多种祭祖方式并存,显示出理学所倡导的祭祖方式与宗族组织的结合仍处于发展阶段.