Khazaria and the Terek (Landscape and Ethnos,II.)

The author analyzes a functional relationship between the historical fate of the Khazar people of the Caspian steppe and changes in the landscape produced by an alternation of wet and dry cycles and changes of the Caspian Sea level. A previous article of this series appeared in Soviet Geography, June 1964.     

The Nature Of Ethnic Wholeness (Landscape and Ethnos,XII)

The character of an ethnic whole is analyzed in terms of systems theory. An ethnos is viewed as a closed system in which the initial burst of energy (innate drive) is gradually spent while entropy steadily increases. The system must constantly remove the accumulated entropy by exchanging energy and entropy with the environment. What produces the wholeness of an ethnic system is not the grouping of similar individuals, but the existence of a particular set of relationships between these individuals, giving rise to what may be termed an “ethnic field”. In light of the systems and field concepts, the author argues against defining an ethnic community as a mere social organism distinguished by common language, culture, daily life and mental outlook. Such an approach, in his view, limits the question of ethnic wholeness to the principle of external likeness, without delving into the internal linkages that hold an ethnos together.     

Ethnology And Historical Geography (Landscape and Ethnos,XIII)

The theory that ethnogenesis is triggered by bursts of innate ethnic drive or energy, following an incubation period, is examined further. An examination of the historical record suggests that several superethnoses may arise simultaneously in various parts of the world. The regions covered by such superethnoses may be broken up by natural barriers ruling out any exchange of population or cultural influences, and yet the regions involved in such energetic surges tend to be monolithic. The spatial contiguity of bursts of ethnic energy at particular periods in history is illustrated by a number of examples ranging from Europe to the Far East, but what precisely triggers these energetic displays still requires the formulation of a hypothesis.     

On the Anthropogenic Factor in Landscape Formation (Landscape and Ethnos VII)

In attempting to classify anthropogenic factors of landscape formation, Gumilev rejects Arnold Toynbee's concept of challenge and response as the factors underlying the genesis of civilizations on the ground that it ignores the factor of ethnic differentiation. Gumilev finds that the principal changes introduced by man into the landscape are associated with certain short-term periods of superhuman effort that coincide with intensive processes of ethnogenesis. This intensive activity is followed by a damping inertia that leads ultimately to a new equilibrium between the ethnos and the environment until the next upsurge of activity.     

The Internal Regularity Of Ethnogenesis (Landscape and Ethnos,XIV)

The author, a Leningrad University ethnologist, completes a series of 14 articles on the relationship between landscape and ethnic communities, and on the forces that account for the rise and decline of ethnic groups through history. After having discussed in the first few articles the relationship between shifts in storm tracks and the fortunes of the steppe peoples of Central Asia, Gumilev developed a theory that attributes the rise, development and decline of an ethnos to the initial burst and gradual waning of an innate ethnic energy or drive. Ethnoses may be grouped into superethnic systems that are identifiable with major culture areas through time and through space (Hellenistic culture, Moslem world, European civilization, Eurasian nomad culture). The author attempts to relate the different phases in the evolution of an ethnos to changing relationships between the group and the individual, as expressed in a series of imperatives, but further analysis of what generates innate ethnic drive is left to other disciplines.     

On the Subject of Historical Geography (Landscape and Ethnos,III)

The author develops a methodology of historical geography revolving around the relationship between an ethnos, or ethnic community, and the “encompassing landscape.” He finds that under the conditions of the nomadic stockherding peoples of the steppe, where this relationship is most clearly expressed, the nomads become an inseparable part of the landscape, together with plant and animal life.     

Two Traditions Of Ancient Tibetan Cartography (Landscape and Ethnos,VIII)

An historical geographer and a Tibetan philologist combine their talents in an effort to interpret and date two ancient Tibetan maps, one in the Iranian-Tibetan tradition and the other in the Indian-Tibetan tradition. The Iranian-Tibetan map, though drawn in an unusual stylized fashion, is found to reflect a level of precision and areal coverage superior to Greco-Roman maps. The Indian-Tibetan map, though more concerned with cosmological matters of the Buddhist tradition, also reflects, in the authors' opinion, an unusual range of knowledge whose precise origins remain obscure.     

Ethnogenesis from the Geographical Point of View (Landscape and Ethnos,IX)

The author deals with the question whether the biological evolution of the species Homo sapiens is continuing under conditions of established civilizations. He replies in the affirmative, but qualifies his answer. The evolution of modern man affects behavioral patterns rather than anatomical or physiologic traits, and is reflected in a greater capacity for adaptation and an expansion of the area of settlement rather than in the improvement of a particular phenotype. The evolution is analyzed best in terms of the ethnos, or ethnic group. Two states of the ethnos are distinguished: a persistent (static) state, in which the ethnos may be said to stagnate, each generation copies the behavioral patterns of the previous generation, and the life patterns are adapted to the landscape; a historical (dynamic) state, in which the new generation breaks new paths, the landscape is adapted to the needs of the economy, and the ethnos strives to expand its area of settlement.     

Heterochronism in the Moisture Supply of Eurasia in the Middle Ages (Landscape Ethnos,V)

The author relates climatic fluctuations in inner Asia to the political fate of the nomadic inhabitants from the 1st century A. D. to the 18th century. He thus establishes an absolute chronology of climatic changes related to latitudinal shifts in storm tracks. Previous articles in this series appeared in Soviet Geography, June 1964, February 1966, and December 1966.     

The Man-Nature Relationship According to the Data of Historical Geography and Ethnology (Landscape and Ethnos,X)

The establishment of a new ethnos, or ethnic community, is attributed to a burst of energy or an innate drive that enables members of the community to break with past traditions and behavioral patterns and to begin building a new set of values distinguishing the new ethnic group from others. The ethnos is viewed as both a social and a biological phenomenon, with the social aspect represented by the group's relations with other groups and institutions and the biological by the behavior of the ethnos as a biological population. The innate drive exhibited by ethnic groups in the early stage of ethnogenesis is viewed as a biological feature. In general this drive is fostered by the practice of endogamy, but there are situations in which an ethnically mixed community, resulting from exogamy, also generates the energy required to initiate the process of ethnogenesis. Although the existence of the ethnic drive can be demonstrated by reference to history and historical geography, an explanation of this form of energy must be left to genetics and anthropology.     

少昊、帝舜与大汶口文化(下)

本文依据文献及前人的论证,认为太昊、帝喾、帝俊及帝舜的名称是不同地缘和时代对同一文化集团的称谓;太昊与少昊是有着亲缘关系的两大部族,在长期的发展过程中或分或合,相互替代,最后合为一体 结合对大汶口文化分期与类型的分析,论定大汶口文化早期刘林类型是少昊的发源地,之后在庙底沟文化的介入下在汶泗流域建国,在大汶口中期前后统一了东方 文章对太昊、少昊诸族的考古文化属性做了初步的推测和认定,论述了大汶口晚期昊族文化的崛起,进而大举西进南征的大致过程,认为由于昊族文化的西迁,推动了中原地区社会的发展和进步,从而形成了一个全新的时代——文明社会的到来     

Landscape Mapping (Its Significance,Its Present State and Its Tasks)

The article surveys the post-war economic development of Canada from the point of view of the nation's rapid expansion as a supplier of raw materials and semi-finished goods on the world market. The regional section analyzes the development of four major Canadian regions: the Atlantic, Central, Prairie and Far West regions, as well as the Canadian North. In all regions the most rapid rates of growth are found to have been recorded by raw-material-producing industries oriented toward the export market.