Paradigms,Assumptions, Enclosure,and Violence: The Hillforts of Strathdon

Abstract

This paper examines the assumptions and intellectual models that lie behind the debate around the connections between violence, warfare, and hillfort construction. These underlining academic paradigms have been heavily influenced by current social and political mores, which have created a context in which prehistoric and Early Medieval hillforts are studied in isolation and where the theoretical models have been developed from and with sole reference to the prehistoric period. In turn the debate in Scotland is based on a very limited number of dated hillforts. New excavation by the author from Aberdeenshire has allowed an attempt at an integrated settlement sequence and this is presented in the assumed context of violence as a dominant influencing factor in hillfort design and construction at specific periods.     

KHAT EXPANSION AND FOREST DECLINE IN WONDO GENET, ETHIOPIA

This study analyses the expansion of khat production in relation to forest decline in the Wondo Genet area in south-central Ethiopia. By assessing spatial variables and social factors, and using remote sensing and social survey techniques, the extent to which this new cash crop contributes to deforestation is explored.
The results indicate that khat has expanded rapidly in terms of land area used for its production at forest frontiers, in isolated forest patches and within farmland since the mid-1980s. This is mainly due to high economic advantage, high market demand and favourable means of transport as well as the existence of a cohesive trade network. Moreover, the properties of the crop also facilitate expansion. The increased production of khat appears to be a result of conscious choice and rational decisions made by male farmers, regardless of religious, cultural and policy discouragement and despite khat's possible negative impact on livelihood security.
Although it is found that khat expansion does not explain forest decline in the study area per se, it plays an important role in enhancing multifaceted interaction between people and forest. The expansion influences forest decline directly by conversion, and indirectly through increased human activity in proximity to forests. The conversion has resulted in a reduction of forest area, resilience and regeneration. Khat production has changed human settlement patterns, suppressed production of other crops and influenced women's income negatively. These aspects increase the demand for wood and it renders the forest an important source of supplementary incomes. Khat production may create tension, resulting from a conflict in interest between sustaining the native forests, with subsequent environmental benefits for the larger social group, and the economically driven choice land use made by khat farmers.     

AGGLOMERATION,TRADE, AND SPATIAL DEVELOPMENT: BRINGING DYNAMICS BACK IN*

ABSTRACT The field of spatial economics has made enormous progress in theorizing and measuring agglomeration effects, trade costs, and urbanization. Typical models establish structural determinants by making strong assumptions about which forces are relevant and how these forces interact. But many of these assumptions, about firms, agents, spatial costs, and market structures, are questionable. As a result, the field has a long way to go to establish causality, and to be able to account for spatial economic dynamics.     

The marbles of two early Christian churches at Latrun (Cyrenaica,Libya)

The provenance of twenty-seven architectural marbles from the two 6th century AD Christian churches of Latrun (Cyrenaica, Libya) has been established by discriminant function analysis of twelve isotopic, EPR and petrographic/morphological variables. Sixteen samples (59%) originate from Proconnesos, while 8 samples (30%) are assigned to the calcitic quarries of Thasos and 1 to the Docimium quarries near Afyon. The last two samples are of uncertain provenance and might be Proconnesian as well. These results demonstrate that the suggestion made long ago by Ward-Perkins that the presence on non-Proconnesian, possibly Thasian, marbles at Latrun was well founded. Particularly interesting is the strong correlation found between provenance and type of the architectural element sampled. Thasian marbles at Latrun were used exclusively for the manufacture of chancel screens. Seven out of nine screens sampled have this provenance, suggesting that the use of different materials is related to issues of work organisation and specialisation in different marble production centres.     

RETHINKING THE SOCIAL IMPACTS OF THE ARTS

The paper presents a critical discussion of the current debate over the social impacts of the arts in the UK. It argues that the accepted understanding of the terms of the debate is rooted in a number of assumptions and beliefs that are rarely questioned. The paper goes on to present the interim findings of a three‐year research project, which aims to rethink the social impact of the arts, with a view to determining how these impacts might be better understood. The desirability of a historical approach is articulated, and a classification of the claims made within the Western intellectual tradition for what the arts “do” to people is presented and discussed.     

Trees or Chains, Links or Branches: Conceptual Alternatives for Consideration of Stone Tool Production and Other Sequential Activities

Archaeologists construct sequence models to describe the operation of past activities such as production of stone tools. As developed in Japan, France, and North American, such models summarize processes, present intermediate steps, and link formally diverse materials. Some sequence models are teleological in that they present actions as predetermined patterns. Others can be considered evolutionary in that they describe results produced by selected interaction between conditions and variables. With separate strengths and different goals, both approaches to sequence modeling have archaeological utility.     

Land Tenure, Archaeology, and the Ancestral Pueblo Social Landscape

Archaeology relies upon evidence of past human modification of the natural landscape in order to infer past human social dynamics on the site, local, and regional levels. Given the inferential linkages between past landscape use and social relationships, archaeology can benefit from an approach that more explicitly delineates relationships between systems of land use and land tenure, the social means through which people define and assert land use rights. This research outlines a set of methods for modeling prehistoric land tenure systems and developing a middle range theory of land tenure relationships that may assist archaeologists in their investigations of prehistoric resource access systems. Land tenure systems are complex risk-buffering strategies that are conditioned by the labor invested in food production, the size of groups holding direct access to productive lands and resources, and the temporal duration of land access rights. The role of these variables is supported by cross-cultural data from a worldwide sample of food-producing societies. The land tenure model is applied to data from the prehistoric Southwest to help explain local and regional changes in food production, settlement size, and community organization in southwest Colorado between 900 and 1300 A.D.     

AN EXAMPLE OF THE PROCESS OF ACCULTURATION IN THE EARLY ROMAN FRONTIER

Summary. This paper looks at how the process of acculturation can be detected in the archaeological record. It considers the specific case of acculturation in the Upper Rhine during the early Roman period and attempts to demonstrate how archaeological material can be used to evaluate social changes. Various aspects of the pottery assemblage, which relate to different aspects of pottery production and use, are considered such as production technology, style, and form. Many of the changes result from cultural changes which occurred as a result of interaction between the Roman and local peoples. Other works concerning acculturation are reviewed to determine what types of factors are involved in the process. These factors are considered, in relation to the Upper Rhine, in a discussion of the changes in the pottery and how they relate to social changes. Various explanatory models are proposed.     

Principal Component Regression in Spatial Lag Model: Teen Employment in the City of Rosario,Argentina

Teen employment is a very important socioeconomic phenomenon because of its consequences on human capital formation. We assess the relation between teen employment and poverty, education, and unemployment in the city of Rosario, using information from the 2010 Argentina Census disaggregated at census block level. We use two different spatial models: The spatial lag model (SLM) and a linear regression model with the spatial component filtered (filtering model, FM). Given the nature of the variables employed, multicollinearity is an issue. One of the techniques proposed in the literature to deal with multicollinearity problems is principal component regression (PCR). We develop an adaptation of such methodology to be used in the SLM. Both models are estimated using their traditional methodologies (instrumental variables for the SLM and OLS for the FM) and using PCR. Although results are similar between the two models, depending on the methodology used in the estimations they differ greatly. Under traditional methodologies estimations show high variability, instability, and contradictory outcomes, but under PCR, results behave according to the literature.     

JUDICIAL SELECTION: THE SOCIAL SCIENTISTS' VIEW*

This paper is an assessment of the contributions which social scientists have made to the debate on the most appropriate mode for selecting state judges. Specific analyses of the assumptions behind differing normative positions qoverning judicial selection (e.g., accountability versus independence) are discussed. Considerable empirical research has been completed on elective and Missouri Plan systemic. It is suggested however, that more definitive conclusions might be possible through cross-system analysis. The methodological barriers to effective comparisons among the systems are high, but that area of inquiry appears to offer the potential for social scientists to make a significant policy contribution.     

Using Multilevel Models to Model Heterogeneity: Potential and Pitfalls

Within the last few years, geographers and researchers in other cognate disciplines with geographic concerns have begun to use multilevel models. While there are several useful existing introductory accounts of these models in the geographical literature, this paper seeks to extend them in three main ways to clarify and emphasize further the substantial opportunities they afford. First, it focuses on how multilevel models are centrally concerned with modeling population heterogeneity as a function of predictor variables. Second, it considers and illustrates a number of specific interpretive issues that can arise when conducting multilevel analyses of place effects. Lastly, it traces some more general, conceptual issues surrounding the use of multilevel models in geographical research. The arguments made are illustrated through an analysis of variations in drinking behavior using data from a typically complex, large‐scale survey; particular attention is given to the inclusion of categorical predictors.     

Reconstructing Archaeological Networks with Structural Holes

Model-based reconstruction is an approach to infer network structures where they cannot be observed. For archaeological networks, several models based on assumptions concerning distance among sites, site size, or costs and benefits have been proposed to infer missing ties. Since these assumptions are formulated at a dyadic level, they do not provide means to express dependencies among ties and therefore include less plausible network scenarios. In this paper we investigate the use of network models that explicitly incorporate tie dependence. In particular, we consider exponential random graph models, and show how they can be applied to reconstruct networks coherent with Burt's arguments on closure and structural holes (Burt 2001). The approach is illustrated on data from the Middle Bronze Age in the Aegean.     

The Classification of Models A Proposal

Abstract

It is here proposed to classify models into seven categories: the pure physical, the physical geometric, the interpretive geometric, the interpretive analogue, the computational analogue, the computational mathematical and the pure mathematical models. A certain overlap is diagrammatically demonstrated in a spectrum of models and examples of each category are presented and discussed. Certain assumptions have to be made and it is hoped that the classification will be of benefit to users of models.     

Conversion by the Numbers: Benefits and Pitfalls of Quantitative Modelling in the Study of Early Christian Growth

Proponents and critics of numerically modelling early Christian growth have missed many complexities of this approach. This study re‐examines quantitative modelling by conducting “thought experiments,” built from initial assumptions to population projections. First, an “apostolic mission” model assumes that Christianity grew via persuasive leaders; it projects a cubic growth curve. Second, a “values reproduction” model ties higher reproduction and conversion to certain Christian values; it projects an exponential curve. Next, a “social reaction” model links growth to interconfessional interactions; it projects a logistic curve. Such formal models reveal numerical parameters of conversion and the impact of various assumptions. Together, they illustrate the variability of early Christian population projections. They also showcase limitations of traditional quantitative modelling, which tends to oversimplify social conditions, to mischaracterise ancient religion, and to inspire teleological reasoning. Newer “network” models can overcome only some of these limitations. Used carefully, however, quantitative methods supplement familiar socio‐cultural approaches.     

Re-placing plainware: Production and distribution of domestic pottery,and the narration of the pre-colonial past in the Peruvian Andes

The location of domestic pottery production is central to archaeological narratives. Yet too often, unfounded assumptions are made about place of production, especially in relation to place(s) of distribution and use. Only rarely is this geography of production and distribution explored in detail and with perspective. Here, we investigate this problem in the context of the Peruvian Andes. We present the results of extensive ethnoarchaeological research on the manufacture of domestic vessels in over thirty villages with potters in Northern Peru. Drawing on the ethnographic concept of technical style, we identify three tendencies on the relationships between toolkits, manufacturing techniques, geographic units, and exchange. From these tendencies we develop two models of domestic pottery production and distribution: the local production model and the non-local production model, which are applied in analysis of archaeological materials. While this distinction is apparently simple, we demonstrate how the explicit or implicit use of each of these models has shaped some of the most important debates and issues in Andean archaeology. In sum, we explain how understandings of the manufacture, exchange, and use of plainware impacts narratives about the pre-colonial past.     

On Language, Culture, and Social Action

This article outlines the theoretical developments experienced in historical studies over the last two decades. As a consequence of the growing critical reconsideration of some of the main theoretical assumptions underlying historical explanation of individuals' meaningful actions, a new theory of society has taken shape among historians during this time. By emphasizing the empirical and analytical distinction between language as a pattern of meanings and language as a means of communication, a significant group of historians has thoroughly recast the conventional notions of society, experience, interests, culture, and identity, and has developed a new concept of social action. Thus, historiographical debate seems to have started to transcend, for the first time, the longstanding and increasingly futile contest or dilemma between objectivism and subjectivism, between materialism and culturalism, between social and intentional explanation, or between social constraints and human agency. The groundwork has now been laid for an alternative to the declining paradigm of social history that does not entail a revisionist return (be it partial or complete) to idealist history but opens a quite different path.     

WHAT ATTRACTS KNOWLEDGE WORKERS? THE ROLE OF SPACE AND SOCIAL NETWORKS

The aim of this paper is to identify the determinants of the geographical mobility of skilled individuals, such as inventors, across European regions. Among a large number of variables, we focus on the role of social proximity between inventors’ communities. We use a control function approach to address the endogenous nature of networks, and zero‐inflated negative binomial models to accommodate our estimations to the count nature of the dependent variable and the high number of zeros it contains. Our results highlight the importance of physical proximity, job opportunities, social networks, as well as other relational variables in mediating this phenomenon.     

A GENERAL FRAMEWORK FOR THE INTEGRATION OF A LAND-USE MODEL WITH A TRANSPORTATION MODEL COMPONENT

Integrated land-use—transportation models are characterized as models in which the redistributive effects of one subsystem upon the other are explicitly defined and incorporated into the model's structure. At the core of integrated models is a linking procedure whose function is to transform the outputs of one model component into inputs for the other. Despite major efforts made in the past to build operational large scale integrated models, the structural properties of such models remain largely unexplored. This paper describes a general framework for an integrated model consisting of prototype model components. These are an iterative activity allocation model of the Garin-Lowry type, an equilibrium-assignment transportation network model, and a linking procedure. Given the level of analysis, this framework is shown useful for exploring the analytics of integrated models and, in particular, their equilibrium properties. By means of many simulation experiments based on an hypothetical numerical example, the operation of the model is demonstrated with an emphasis on the locational interpretation of the integration procedure. On the basis of the empirical results and considering the model's intrinsic assumptions, the following major findings can be cited. First, the effects of nontravel factors (such as basic employment and zonal attractions) upon activity distribution are stronger than effects caused by changes in the transportation system. The latter effects were found to yield nonlinear and, spatially, nonuniform changes in activity location which also tended to be larger in peripheral regions. Second, implicit in the specification of the integration procedure are behavioral assumptions regarding time-lags in locational adjustments made by activities in reaction to rising cost of travel. The present formulation implies that once located, activities do not revise their locational decisions despite substantial increases in travel costs. At the other extreme, all activities are permitted to readjust their locational preferences after the final interzonal travel costs are derived. The effect upon activity distribution of the latter specification is, of course, larger than that of the former, although less than the effect yielded by changes in nontravel factors. Regarding the equilibrium properties of the integrated system, both the theoretical and empirical analyses show that the entire model will converge into an equilibrium solution and that the corresponding trip patterns are also at equilibrium. These results will hold as long as the operation of the integrated models is completely controlled by the generation functions of the land-use model and the transportation model component only affects the spatial distribution of activities. Finally, the results from the simulation experiments indicate that the computed mean travel cost parameter tends to stabilize around a certain value as the level of demand for travel, within the system, rises. There is evidence that compensating changes in the location and composition of this demand are the main causes of this phenomenon. In light of these findings, it is possible to point to three key problems whose resolution could largely improve the predictive power of integrated models. First, it would be useful to define activity models in which the generation of activities is, among other things, a function of travel conditions. Second, currently formulated integrated models do not contain trip demand functions and, thus, demand for travel by an activity unit is regarded as completely inelastic. Third, different locating activities respond differently—over time and space—to changíng travel conditions, and models should, therefore, reflect explicitly such differences in activity behavior. A recent paper by Los [14], is an important contribution to the analysis of this issue.     

Social context of the unchambered megalithic long barrows in Middle Pomerania,Poland

This paper is an attempt at defining the social functions of the unchambered megalithic long barrows found in the ?upowa group of the Funnel Beaker Culture (TRB). The authors assume that their aim can be achieved by employing a cultural ecological approach, which leads to a determination of the following variables: exploitation efficiency of the local population, local territory, and size of that population. The values determined for these variables imply that only a small, limited number of the deceased members of the group were buried in the long barrows discussed. Thus, it is possible that burial functions were not the only and most important ones. The authors try to define the remaining functions of the long barrows.